Tamer of the Night
by DevilKeys Writing
Summary: Six years ago, at the age of 11 Takato Matsuki found out that he was a vampire, and his life took a turn that made even digimon seem completely normal. Well, in the words of the blood-drinking assassin himself, "Normality is overrated." Story is now dead on this end. Adopted by moonrose221.
1. Night Job

Hello people!

This is another test fic for another version of Tamer of the Hazard, this time it's about a vampire Takato. I feel this one would work much better than the werewolf version for digimon battles and the Omegavice. I've been wracking my brain for ways to combine the powers of the Omegavice with lycanthropy, but I just can't do it without turning Takato into a Weregarurumon!

I'll warn you all now, this is LOOSELY influenced by Hellsing, but not in the way that most of you will think.

I must stress the fact that this is a PROTOTYPE fic, just like the werewolf version, so any mistakes most likely won't be corrected, and it's all up to you whether it continues or not.

The next chapter of the original will be coming soon, after nearly a year on hiatus, so look out for it.

I hope you all like it, I actually had quite a bit of fun writting it.

* * *

A figure, dressed in a black trenchcoat, crouched on the ledge of the roof of a three story building; a warehouse. The figure stared down at the string of black sedans pulling up around the back, away from prying eyes...All but his unseen crimson orbs, hidden behind reflective, black rimmed, red-tinted sunglasses.

The figure raised a gloved hand up to its ear, brushing aside a few locks of dark brown, almost black shoulder length hair and pressing on the small communicator.

"They're here." a low, masculine voice spoke, identifying the figure as a male. "What are my orders?"

There was a pause, then the another voice, digitally altered to sound British, spoke from the other side.

_"Wait until the meeting is over, record everything they say, then silence them. These Yakuza thugs have been a real thorn in the side of our client, so there will be NO survivors, is that clear?"_

The man nodded. "Of course."

_"Good. This may be the one time I ask you to be...flashy in disposing of them. I want you to send a message to both the Yakuza and the police force. Show those thugs what happens when they get on the bad side of professionals. And show the law enforcement that these gangs are making a comeback, and are operating right under their noses."_

"You're oddly passionate today, Boss. Something up?" the man chuckled lightly.

_"Ah, so I am. Forgive me, it's late, and I don't feel like dealing with this bullshit. I mean we're professional assassins, for God's sake! We shouldn't be pulling off hits on Yakuza lowlives, we should be assassinating foreign ministers, tyrannical leaders, political extremists, important people, you know?"_

The man scoffed, watching the men down below shake hands. "I know. My..._talents_ are being wasted here. Why am I even here? There are two other agents in the area, both with more experience in dealing with these guys, and both have a LOT more patience than I do. I could be at a party, a concert, anything! I could even be scaring the crap out of random people on the streets. That would be more fun than this."

The man on the other end of the comm. link snorted. _"Typical teen. No matter what it is, work is never 'fun' for you. Even when you get paid, very well, I might add, to kill people, you still complain about it not being enough fun. You want fun? How about I drop you into the middle of North Korea without any weapons, or, better yet, without any clothes, and leave you to fight off an entire army by yourself. Would THAT be fun?"_ the Boss was almost at the point of screaming.

"...That would kick sooo much ass! Though I could do without the naked thing, when do I start?" the assassin asked eagerly.

_"...You...You're a freak, that's the only explanation. You're just plain unnatural!"_

"Correction, I'm a vampire. And I'm not natural, I'm SUPERnatural!" the man laughed, then saw the Yakuza thugs walk into the warehouse. "Gotta go, Boss, the meeting's started, and you've got to start recording."

_"Yes, quite. We'll discuss this later. Remember, WAIT until the meeting is OVER! We think there's a alterior motive behind the client wanting them dead, and we aim to find out as much as we can before the hit is carried out."_

The assassin grumbled under his breath. "Don't call it a 'hit', it cheapens what I'm doing here...Makes me wonder why I took this job."

_"We both know why. It was either this, or we send wave after wave of agents to kill you, and everyone you know. You may have been happy being a neutral vampire, but people were going to come after you sooner or later, and most wouldn't give you any kind of choice in the matter. Just be glad you still have free will. Others would have turned you into a mindless puppet by now. We've had problems with neutral vampires before, and you are far too powerful for us to simply let you go."_

"Yeah, whatever. I get to kill anything I deem a threat to my family and friends, so I'm fine with this arrangement." 'For now.' he thought silently.

He took his fingers off of the communicator and silently crawled down the wall, Spider-man style, and went into the warehouse through an open window. Inside, he continued wall-crawling and settled on the ceiling, his coat and hair somehow defying gravity. He looked down, or up in his case, at the thugs on the ground level.

'How cliche is this? Black suits, black sedans, secret meetings, leaders standing inside of a circle of thugs. Look at these fools, I can smell their egos! They both want to kill each other so badly they're twitching!' he smirked when he saw some of the thugs shifting anxiously, just itching to unholster their weapons and let loose on the rival gang. 'Maybe I can start a little trouble, make these turn on each other. Hell, I could probably start a huge war between different Yakuza Clans!' then he thought about it. 'Nah, that's not my style. Besides, all of Shinjuku would be turned into a massive battlefield. Innocents caught in the crossfire, everyone would be in danger, and that's something I don't want to deal with. Might as well deal with them the old fashion way.'

Down below, the meeting was finally getting started. Two men, in their early thirties, dressed in black Armani suits began talking. They looked like your classic Yakuza badguy. Short, slicked-back hair, dressed in all black, shades, gloves to ensure their were no fingerprints, 9mms hidden under their suits, switchblades hidden in their sleeves, earpieces to keep in contact with the scouts outside, and the "paranoid evildoer" personality. It was like every guy there was just waiting to be busted and have cops swarm the building. Oh, of they only knew, they'd be _praying_ for the cops.

"Glad you could make it, Yokozuna." the taller of the two mean said.

"I almost though you wouldn't show, and that this would be some kind of trap. I'm glad to see I was mistaken. How are you this fine night, Kenshin?" the other greeted.

"I'd be much better if our bosses weren't constantly at each other's throats."

On the ceiling, the assassin rose an eyebrow and whispered into the communicator. "Hold up, 'Bosses'? I thought these guys were the bosses?"

_"So did I. It seems we made the right decision in questioning this mission. There is, indeed, more to this than meets the eye."_

Down below, Yokozuna nodded and sighed. "Those old fools, their blind following of the age-old traditions will be the downfall of the Clans! The other Clans have embraced the new ways, and are rising quickly through the ranks, while we're slowing falling behind."

Kenshin nodded in agreement. "Exactly. Revenue is at an all-time low for the Khaichou, and I assume the same goes for the Yokenzou?"

Takato's eyebrow twitched. "Hey, Boss, isn't that the name of..."

_"The client? Yes. It seems he tried to pull a fast one on us. Some pathetic Yakuza crimelord should not know who we are and what we do. When I give the order, kill them all, then move on to the client."_

The assassin smirked, showing off a long fang. "Yes sir." then he went back to focusing on the conversation below.

"Sadly, yes. We've fallen on hard times, indeed. Even our hitmen are recieving fewer and fewer jobs. It's that damned 'Way of the Samurai' that's getting in the way!"

"Same with our whole 'Shinobi Pride' bullshit. It's all collapsing around us. Not only are we being left behind by these newcomer Yakuza, we're losing funds to this pointless 'Secret War' going on between our Clans! So what if ninjas and samurai are supposed to be ancient enemies. So are cats and dogs, and my pets get along just fine!" Kenshin rubbed his temples and grumbled.

"And that's why you've called this meeting tonight? Are we finally going to do something about this?" Yokozuna asked eagerly.

"That we are, my friend. I've got it all worked out. We get both Clan Heads together in one place, but make sure they don't know the other's there. We then show up and kill them both."

"But how are we going to keep the rest of the Clan off of our backs?"

"I've got a couple of spies from the Icotori Clan tied up in the trunks of our cars out back. We'll be dressed up as assassins from the Fuku Clan, so initial blame will be put on them. But we'll dress those Icotori spies up in the same way, kill them, and leave their bodies at the scene. When the Clan finds them, they'll blame the Fuku Clan first. When the Fuku come out to claim their innocence, they'll see that it's actually Icotori Clansmen dressed up as them, and they'll point the finger at them for attempting a frame-up. We'll take control of both of our clans, and bow out of the conflict, saying we don't have the time, nor the rescources to fight them, but we won't forget, and we won't forgive. So, you see, I've got it all planned out!" Kenshin faught the urge to laugh maniacally.

Yokozuna nodded vigorously. "Yes! This is it, we'll finally bring our Clans back to power! When should we do this? And is anyone else in on it?"

Kenshin shook his head. "No one else knows about this, nor will they ever. We'll do it two days from now, on Monday, so make sure you and your men are ready for this. We have to come with our A-game, as I'm sure you understand. All it takes is one dead body from our end and the whole thing will be blown to shit."

Yokozuna nodded, then looked over his shoulder. "Do you even get the feeling...you're being watched?"

Kenshin looked around as well. "Yes...now that you mention it, something doesn't feel right about this." the other goons surrounding them started pulling out guns, looking highly paranoid.

"Sir?" the vampire was getting tired of awaiting orders.

_"I've heard enough. Kill them."_ the comm. link went dead and the assassin grinned and dropped from the ceiling.

Every thug watched in horror and awe as a tall man dressed all in black dropped down from the rafters.

"You know, you guys should really choose better places to plan a mutany. In this place, the walls have ears." he stood to his full height of nearly six and a half feet, towering above every other man present.

Yokozuna shook off his fear first and snarled, "And just who are you?"

The man turn his attention towards the short man. "Me? Well, I'm not so much a 'who' as I am a 'what'."

Kenshin fingered the trigger of his .45 ACP semi-auto pistol, which sprang out from under his sleeves.

"Then what are you? A hitman? Or just a guy with a serious deathwish?"

The man's smirk widened a bit. "Half right. I'm a hitman, of sorts, but I'm not some little half-assed thug, like you. But, as for what I really am, the answer is simple: I'm a vampire."

The Yakuza thugs all shared looks, then burst out laughing.

"You...expect us...to believe that?" a random goon choked out between laughs. "Kid, you're funny. What are you, sixteen, seventeen?"

The vampire never lost his smirk. "Seventeen, but I don't see what that has to do with anything."

This caused the thugs to laugh even harder, some actually keeling over and clutching their sides.

"Kid...just go home...and we'll forget all about this...You're funny as hell!...So we'll let you go...How about it?" Yokozuna wiped his eye, which nearly bulged out of its socket as he spat up huge amounts of blood and looked down. The teen he had just been laughing at now had his hand jammed through his chest, and was currently holding his left lung.

"I say..." the assassin squeezed the organ, causing the man to spit up more blood. "Have fun in hell." he ripped his hand from the man's chest and let him fall to the ground, dead.

Kenshin looked at the scene of brutality and screamed to his mean, "K-Kill him! Shoot him, SHOOT HIM!" he started to fire his handgun wildly, as did every other thug.

The vampire laughed as he ducked and dived in between round after round, weaving in and out of their line of sight.

"You're all pathetic, every last one of you! You have the nerve to call yourselves assassins when you can't even shoot straight? You're a disgrace, even to something as low as Yakuza! Do everyone a favor, and DIE!" long katar blades shot out from inside the sleeves of his coat, just above his wrists.

"Dammit, someone shoot this g-!" the goon was cutoff by one of the blades being jammed through his skull.

Thugs started falling left and right, some being shot by their own companions, but most being torn apart by the teenage assassin. Limbs were severed, bodies were bisected, heads were lopped off, and blood flew everywhere.

Yakuza Clansmen outside were stumbling into the warehouse, drawn by the screams and gunfire, only to end up lambs to the slaughter. Some men tried to escape from the windows, but they were dragged into the shadows and fed upon by the vampire.

Soon it as all over. A small army of thugs, all supposed to be trained killers, completely decimated by a teenager. All that was left was Kenshin. He still had more info to give, and the assassin was intent on getting it out of him.

Kenshin whimpered in pain as he held the stump where his left hand used to be. His head snapped up and his eyes widened in fear as he heard the boot thumps of the vampire coming towards him. The monster appeared out of the shadows, its jaws around the throat of another man, holding him a foot off the ground with ease.

"Nice to see you stayed for the finale of this little party." the vampire spoke, though it was muffled by its meal.

Kenshin screamed, then picked up his .45 and fired four rounds at the monster before him before an empty click made the exhausted magazine known. The man dropped the gun and stared in horror, while the vampire laughed.

The creature looked down at the victim in its jaws, which had taken all four rounds, then released it, letting the limp corpse fall to the floor.

"Your aim really does suck, you know that?" the assassin stalked forward, instilling more fear into his prey.

Kenshin stared up at the towering beast that was now standing above him. "Please, have mercy! Spare me!"

The vampire glared down at the pathetic whimpering mess that was once a proud Yakuza. "...You suck...Big time." he muttered, then sighed. "Fine, I'll let you leave this warehouse alive. This is a one time deal, so I suggest you become a priest, and pray that you never meet me again. Am I clear?"

"Y-Yes s-s-sir!" Kenshin hopped to his feet and ran out of the warehouse.

He never saw the vampire pull a large handgun from behind his back, inside of his coat. He never heard the hammer of said gun being pulled back. He never registered the sound of the gunshot. But he felt the intense pain of a large caliber bullet ripping through his body. He tasted his own blood as it rushed up his throat. He smelled his blood as it spilled from the soccer ball-sized exit wound. The last thing he saw was the fact that he could see his own insides, and that his heart was gone.

The vampire walked out and sneered down at the corpse, then lifted it and tossed it back into the warehouse.

"Well, he got out of the warehouse alive, just like I said." he smirked, then took out eight small metal disks and placed one on the back of every sedan outside of the warehouse. Then, after taking to the rooftops, he took out a small remote and pressed on the red buttons. There was a small beep, then the entire warehouse went up in a giant explosion, accompanied by the smaller explosions from the cars.

_"Well, I did tell you to be flashy, didn't I?" _the Boss spoke from the reactivated comm. link.

"Yep. So, on to the so-called client?" the vampire asked, bounding from rooftop to rooftop.

_"Yes. He tried to play us for fools, and he knows way too much about us. Get any information you can out of him before you take him out, preferably about who else among the Yakuza know about our organization. We can't have these lowlives blabbing to everyone, or the government will cut our funding. We've been put on notice quite a few times, mostly for stunts that _you_ pulled. But all that's meaningless compared to this. Your mission is simple: find Shinji Yokenzou, interrogate him, then kill him. Destroy anything and/or anyone that gets in your way. Extreme prejudice is authorized, but try to keep explosions to a minimum. And if the autorities show up, kill Yokenzou and get out. Good luck, not that you'll need it. I'll inform the higher-ups of these new developements. Now, get to it, Agent Seventeen." _the comm. link was shut off again.

The assassin smirked. "Yes sir." his eyes then widened as he felt a familiar presence, and he dove down into a pitch black alleyway.

And not a moment too soon, as a yellow blur shot passed overhead.

The vampire rose an eyebrow. 'Renamon? What is she doing roaming this far away from Rika's house? Meh, I don't have time for this, she's going towards the warehouse anyway, probably just drawn by the explosion.' he decided it was too risky to travel via rooftops with the ninja-like kitsune digimon roaming around, so he took to darting in between shadows, silent as a ghost, towards his next target.

(Thirty Minutes Later)

It was nothing short of absolute chaos at the Yokenzou mansion. Cars were flipped over and burning, walls were destroyed, entire sections of the home were demolished, bullet holes littered every surface, blood soaked the ground and floors, dead bodies were piled up around every corner, and a cocophony of screams and gunshots rang out all across the property.

No one was sure of exactly what had happened. It had been a normal night, guards armed with QZB-95, M4A1, and Type 89 assault rifles, and vicious attack dogs patrolled the grounds. While guards armed with Knights SR-25 XM110 semi-auto sniper rifles and long barrel FN SCAR-L/Mk.16 assault rifles roamed the rooftops. Inside were more guards armed with MP5's, P90's, SPAS-12 shotguns, and katanas patrolled the hallways.

With well fortified property, heavily armed guards, and a lot of political connections, the Yokenzou Clan had little to worry about from outside forces. That is, natural outside forces. They could never have known that they'd be dealing with a creature that no normal weapon could kill.

It had started off as just some random intruders, probably some novice assassins looking to make a name for themselves. The dogs were released along with two guards, both armed with M4A1 assault rifles. Neither they, nor the dogs ever returned. The other guards shared looks, then all hell broke loose. Most of the guards at ground level were felled by a salvo of automatic fire from within the dark treeline. The remaining guards fired at the last muzzle flashes, but hit nothing.

Other guards were sent to check it out and walked over, being covered by the snipers from the roof. All they found were two spent M4A1's and the mutilated corpses of the dogs and the first two guards. The live guards were each then gifted with a new hole to breathe out of before they fell to the ground. Everyone's attention turned to the snipers, only to find them all dead and two rifles missing.

Guards were being picked off one by one. Heads were exploding like the men had been chewing on M-80's. Cars were blowing up seemingly without reason. Sections of the compound were set on fire by some unseen being. Nothing, and no one, was safe from whatever demon had descended upon the Yokenzou household.

This thing just didn't stop! They had shot it, thrown grenades at it, some had even used throwing knives, but nothing worked! It just kept killing. Guards, dogs, Clansmen/women, everything with a pulse was hunted down and torn limb from limb. Only children and members of the clan that had no dealings in Yakuza affairs were spared.

Shinji Yokenzou was holed up in his private den, surrounded by twenty of his elite guards, each armed with the latest models of HK417 assault rifles, firing the powerful 7.62x51mm NATO rounds with magazines modified to hold 30 rounds, as opposed to the 20 rounds in a normal HK417 rifle. With a rate of fire set at a blistering 600 rounds per minute, these guards were ready to deal out some serious ass-kicking, and were well trained in the art of doing so.

Shinji was confident in his guards, as well as himself. Armed with a 2006 model AA-12 full-auto assault shotgun with a 20 round drum magazine, he was ready for anything short of Godzilla himself. Too bad, for him, that what was coming was even meaner than the big, green, nuclear lizard.

"Boys, get ready. As soon as that door opens, light up whatever the hell's on the other side! By the end of the night, I want this guy to have more holes than a sponge." Shinji unfolded the bipod on his shotgun and propped it up on his desk, checking the iron sights to make sure his aim was true.

More screams were heard, along with the sound of a P90 being unloaded. With a rate of fire at a dizzying 900 rounds per minute, the FN P90 had the highest rate of fire of any submachine gun, maybe the highest for anything short of a machine gun. But, apparently, it wasn't having any effect at all, or the guy was just too busy screaming like a little girl to aim correctly.

Before they knew it, the 50 round magazine had run dry and there was another scream, which was abruptly cutoff. Whatever the man had been shooting at was still alive and well.

Some of the elite guards started scratching their fingers on the triggers of their guns, just waiting for that demon to walk through the door. They'd send it straight back to hell with more holes than a Charlie Brown ghost costume!

More screams and gunshots, from an SPAS-12, much closer than those before. The next set of screams were from the guards in the hallway leading to the den. Soon the sounds of battle and slaughter died down, and whatever this thing was, it was right outside the door.

Three slow knocks, then a voice. "Housekeeping."

The guards opened fire on the door, the powerful rounds ripping through the solid red oak like it was wet toilet paper and tearing up the enemy on the other side.

Soon each 30 round magazine was exhausted and the guards quickly reloaded. But, before the empty mags even reached the ground, the door burst open and a black blur darted in and started cutting them to pieces.

The men didn't shoot, they didn't scream, most of them didn't even get a chance to inhale again before they were eternally silenced.

Shinji could only stare in horror. 7 seconds. That's all it took. His personal guards, the elite! ex-Special Ops. men. Black Ops., Green Berret, there were even a few ex-SEALs mixed in. But none of them were a match for the monster that was now standing before him, covered in the blood of his men.

"I feel sorry for your maid, I really do. You know, she deserves a raise after this." the killer laughed. "From her new employer, that is."

Shinji snarled, looking into the red lenses of the man's glasses, only see his own terrified visage reflected in them. His eyes widened, wasn't he just snarling? Why did he still look so afraid?

'It's like...he's looking into my soul...' Shinji thought.

The killer grinned, putting his long fangs on full display. "You tried to play us, Yokenzou."

Shinji started to sweat. "W-W-What are y-you talking about? I-I d-d-don't even know y-you!"

"True, you don't know me. But I know you, and you know my employer. You hired an assassin to take out a rogue branch of your own thugs, and they sent me. You thought we'd just kill them without getting any info we could out of them? We aren't you, we're true professionals."

Shinji's eyes widened. "Y-You! Y-You're from the A-Agency!"

The assassin nodded. "Yes, I am. I'm one of their top assassin's, as a matter of fact, and I've only been with them for four years. But that's beside the point. You seem to have forgotten that, no matter what you do, there will always be someone better at it. You tried to mess with the best, now you're going down like the rest!" he lifted one of the katar-like blades, which was covered in blood and gore from the nearly 200 men he had killed. "Look at these. They're real beauties, eh? Solid titanium construction throughout, rust proof, bullet proof, heat resistant, acid resistant. Damn near indestructible, but I've got four spares, just in case." he stuck out his unnaturally long tongue and licked some of the blood over, leaving a clean streak showing the shiney, unmarred metal underneath.

"Just look at that, the blood comes right off." he whipped it to the side, causing the rest of the blood to fly off, then showed Shinji the clean blade. "Non-stick, just like momma's cookware." he laughed, then looked at Shinji's forgotten weapon. "Oh, an AA-12 assault shotgun! I don't have one of those, you mind if I take it after I kill you? I'm taking some of your other toys as well. I'm a collector, of sorts. And besides, you never know when this kind of firepower will be useful!"

Shinji smirked. "You like it? Why don't I give you a little demonstration, then we'll see if you can handle it!" he opened fire on the vampire.

20 shells later, the assassin was down. How he managed to stay standing while being shot 20 times with a 12-gauge shotgun, Shinji would never know.

"Hah! Couldn't take it, could you, kid? This is the best the Agency has to offer? What a fucking joke!" he got up and made to walk around to the front of the desk. "Don't get me wrong, you were one hell of a killer, but you lack the finesse of a true...assassin...What the hell?" the body was gone.

Shiji heard the sound of the bolt on his shotgun being cocked and turned around, only to stare down the barrel of his reloaded AA-12.

The "dead" assassin was sitting in the chair, boot-clad feet propped up on the desk, a picture of Shinji's teenage daughter in his left hand, the shotgun in his right.

"Wow...I mean fuckin' WOW! Your daughter is one hot babe! You sure she's yours? I don't see the resemblance." the killer smirked. "I've seen better," a scowling redhead in a bakini popped up in his head, "but she's definately up there."

Shinji growled, but only got his nose pressed into the barrel of the shotgun. "You can kill my guards, you can kill my Clansmen, but please, leave my daughter alone." he pleaded.

The assassin sat the photo down, took off his shades, and looked straight into Shinji's eyes with his glowing crimson ones. After a few seconds he narrowed his eyes and replaced his glasses.

"I can see you were a good father to her. You're all she has, since she doesn't like your latest wife. I'm sure she'll be fine, but she will suffer enough from the death of her father."

Shinji pulled up another chair and sat down, the shotgun still in his face. "So, this is how I go out? Without honor, without pride, a disgraceful death."

The assassin shook his head. "There's no honor in running away from a fight, but there's no shame in fighting and getting your ass kicked."

Shinji chuckled. "At least someone remembers the old ways." he closed his eyes and sighed. "May they live on in the hearts and minds of people like you."

The assassin nodded, then squeezed the trigger. The lound shot rang out across the now silent compound, almost deafening. The vampire arose from the chair and gave a respectful bow to the former samurai. For the next few minutes he walked around the mansion, picking up any weapons that he didn't have and taking all the ammo he could find. He walked into the garage and found a black Chevy Avalanche just sitting there and he whistled.

After stuffing all of his weapons and ammo into the truck, he turned on the comm. link.

"Boss?"

_"Yes, Agent 17?"_

"It's done."

_"Right. Good work, as always, 17. Is there anything else?"_

"Yes. I found a truck here that I want you to register in my name. It's a black Chevy Avalanche. Must be stolen, it still has an American license plate:" he leaned back to look at it, "Oh, you've got to be kidding me!" he laughed.

_"What is it?"_

"The license plate is, get this, 'AGNT 017'. Freaky, right?"

The sound of someone spitting something out and laughing was heard.

_"A destined meeting if I ever heard of one! Everything will be taken care of, don't worry about it. We'll have to modify your truck, of course. Do something with the engine, put some Ro-Plates on it. Anything else?"_

"Spiked tires?"

_"We've discussed this before. No."_

"Secret compartments?"

_"Already comes standard."_

"Game and internet setup?"

_"Do it yourself."_

"Missiles in the headlights?"

_"N-?...That's not too bad of an idea, actually. Bring the truck in, after you drop off your 'toys', and we'll fix it up for you. After this you've got a bit of downtime scheduled, so take it easy. The other two Agents in the area are now back on the active roster, and now it's your turn for a vacation. And NO HUNTING! We do NOT need a fiasco like that one that resulted from your last rampage!"_

"Hey, Wolfgirl started it, and I finished it!" the Agent defended himself as he got into the truck. He could hear sirens in the distance.

_"And you couldn't have 'finished it' in a dark alley somewhere?"_

"...That sounded so wrong when you said it. And she was hunting me, not the other way around!"

_"And you stalking her through a carnival at night isn't hunting?"_

"Oh, for fuck's sake, for the last fuckin' time; I. Was. Looking. For. Some. Sugarwaffles! She saw me, assumed I was following her, dragged me into that lame-ass 'Haunted House' ride no one wanted to go on, and tried to rape me!"

_"Rape you?"_

"Eat me! She tried to eat me!"

_"You said rape."_

"No, I didn't."

_"Yes, you did."_

"Did not."

_"I just recorded you saying it!"_

"I'm orry, I'm oing oh a unnel. Alk oh you ater." the Agent switched the comm. link off and cursed to himself for making such a bad slip-up. He'd be the laughing stock of the Agency if they found out he was terrified of being raped by nymphomaniac shewolf. Even if most vampires saw werewolves as inferior beings, and, in some cases, pets, there was no getting around the fact that a fully transformed werewolf could overpower almost any vampire. And she was no different.

It also didn't help that she was someone that knew his true identity, even though she didn't know they were the same person, and was friends with his friends. It was a very delicate situation, but as long as he didn't fuck it up, things would be alright...Right?

* * *

And there you have it, the prototype for the first chapter of Tamer of the Hazard: Vampire Version. If you have any suggestions about a better subtitle, please tell me, 'cause my mind is kinda blank at the moment.

This fic is influence by Hellsing in the way Takato interacts with his boss. He loves to annoy him, and point out when he's out of character. He also likes to point out the obvious when speaking to him, which also annoys the Boss to no end. The guns are NOT inspired by Hellsing or Alucard. The way he carries them is inspired by Dante from the Devil May Cry franchise, and the way he shoots is inspired by Ocelot from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. He relies mostly on accuracy and speed to get the job down, but will frequently perform tricks with his guns to distract tougher opponents, and will pull off seemingly impossible trick shots when he's bored with his enemies. Oh, and he also keeps three revolvers in his own private "torture chamber" for the gun juggling trick, used for interrogation.

He may have a weird name, and a lot of weird habits(who doesn't in the MGS series?), but he's undeniably badass(again, who isn't?).

Oh yeah, and you all might want to read grimandgrimmer's fic Devil May Cry 3: Takato's Awakening. You can guess what it's about, but, as far as I know, it's the first of its kind on this site.

As always, if you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Until next time, folks!

Jason Out!


	2. One Magical Day: Part 1

Good news, people! I've decided to continue the vampire version of Tamer of the Hazard because of generally positive responses. BUT! It won't follow the same storyline as the original, so it can't really be called Tamer of the Hazard...I don't even know if I'll put the digimon transformation abilities in. Don't you think Takato's badass enough as a vampiric hitman?

Meh, I'll leave the fate of this story up to you, my loyal readers.

Anyway, enjoy!

BTW, this chapter contains a bit of Rukatoness.

* * *

After a fifteen minute drive, Takato arrived at his home and parked his new truck out front. He stood outside of the house/bakery for a few seconds, then took off his sunglasses, showing his now blazing red eyes.

He was using his Blood Vision ability, normally something only very experienced vampires could do. From his point of view, then entire world was made up of different shades of blue. But anything that could be a valid prey item was highlighted by a deep, pulsing, form-fitting, crimson outline. The pulse of the outline was in-time with the beating of the prey item's heart, and would increase when the prey was scared, alert, or was very active. It would also decrease when the prey was asleep, or completely relaxed for whatever reason.

But certain things would show up as other colors. For example: other vampires showed up as dull orange, showing that he could still feed on them, but it was at his own risk. Werewolves were highlighted in pale yellow, almost white, in their human forms, but bright gold in their beast forms. Digimon would show up as green when they first bio-emerged, but would slowly shift to purple the longer they stayed in the Human World. Takato never knew what that meant, but never really bothered finding out.

He was currently checking to see if anyone, besides his parents and Guilmon, were inside. Scanning the house, he saw two crimson outlines and one bright purple. They were still up and about, which was sort of surprising, since it was well past midnight, and they were early risers.

"Maybe they're waiting for me?" he shrugged, then took the weapons out of the back of the truck and smirked. "Well, I finally got that FN P90 dad wanted." he walked up and knocked on the door.

"Who is it? Can't you see we're closed?" Takato's father, Takehiro Matsuki, said.

"Dad, open the damned door, and put down the Remington!" the door was unlocked and Takehiro poked his head out.

"Were you followed?" he asked, looking around.

Takato rolled his eyes. "I'm the government assassin, yet you're the paranoid one. Weird how that works out, eh?"

Takehiro snorted and opened the door for his son. "So, what's the haul this time around?" he knew he could always count on Takato to bring home new toys!

Takato smirked as he sat the weapons down on the couch. "Look for yourself, there's a few more in the truck."

"Truck?" Takehiro rose an eyebrow.

"Yeah, I got me a truck now." Takato said off-handedly, using a faint accent.

His father just shook his head and started sifting through the assorted guns.

Takato was rummaging around for stray bullets when he heard his father's shout of glee. "Guess he found it."

Mie Matuski walked down the stairs to witness her husband off in his own little world, the world he went to when he finally got something he had wanted for a long time.

She sighed. "What is it with men and guns?" she shook her head and went to the door to welcome her son home. She found him with half his body underneath one of the back seats and his legs handing out of the back door of a black truck. "Do you have a license, young man?" she laughed when Takato smashed his head on the underside of the seat.

"Oh, hey, Mom! The Agency is taking care of all the legal stuff, as well as the...modifications."

Mie shook her head. "Missiles in the headlights?"

Takato was about to ask how she knew, but just shut his mouth and nodded. She was his mother, most of the time she knew what he was going to do before he did.

"Oh yeah, I've been given some time off, so if you have anything planned, I won't be called out for quite a while." Takato stuffed the last bullet he had found into the magazine of an M4A1, then closed the back door. He walked over and gave his mother a hug.

Mie gave her son a quick peck on the cheek. "Oh, don't worry about that. I've noticed you've been growing a little distant from your friends, so you should use this time to do something with them."

Takato knew she was right, so he just nodded and walked inside. "I've got to take the truck in, so I'm just stopping by to drop off the 'cargo' and grab a drink." he went into the kitchen and opened the fridge. "Hey, mom, where's the-"

"Behind the orange juice, we finally put in that back compartment. The code is 8-5-12-12. We can't have any of your friends coming by, wanting something to drink, and finding a bunch of blood, now can we?"(1)

Takato just nodded, sometimes mothers were too smart for their child's own good. He moved the orange juice aside and found a small, unassuming box. He pushed on the box and the front slid open, revealing the keypad. After putting in the code, he heard a slight hissing noise, then the box sunk into the back of the fridge and the entire thing slid up, revealing packs of medical blood hanging from rows of racks. He took two, then poked his head out and looked at his parents.

"You want anything while I'm in here?" he asked.

Mie shook her head. "No, we're fine, we already ate dinner." she gave him "The Look".

Takato closed the refrigerator door and hung his head. "I'm sorry, Mom, but it wasn't my fault! You know I can't go against orders."

"But what about, 'Your mission, should you choose to accept it'?"

"Okay, one: That only happens in Mission Impossible. Two: The other two Agents in the area were off duty. And three: It provided me with enough blood for two weeks, at least! As long as I keep the use of my powers to a minimum, that is."

"Then what's with those?" Mie pointed at the blood packs.

"Some of the guys I fed on were..._messed up_, if you know what I mean. I need something to get the taste out of my mouth." he tore open both packs and downed them at the same time. "And nothing does that like AB Postitive!" he sighed happily and put the empty packs into a hidden shaft in the wall that went down past the basement, deep underground, where they landed in a vat of acid in Takato's personal "Interrogation" room.

"Takatomon, you're finally home?" Guilmon's nasaly, child-like voice called out as the digimon came down the stairs to greet his Tamer.

"I know I gave up on this years ago, but come on, I'm not a digimon!" Takato whined, sounding just like he did back when he first became a Tamer.

"I know, Guilmon just likes to annoy Takatomon!" Guilmon tackled his Tamer to the floor.

Takato landed with grunt and squirmed when Guilmon licked his face. "What's it been, five years since I first created you? I'm still not used to that tackle." he groaned. 'But it sure as hell beats having a car dropped on me.' he grimaced at the shitstorm that particular mission turned into.

Dropped into a foreign country with nothing but weapons, clothes, and a partner. The one time they listen to his requests and grant him a partner, what do they do? They give him the Rookie. What does the Rookie do? He fucks everything up by taking it upon himself to kill all of the target's guards, causing Takato, who'd had his crosshairs trained on the head of said target, to become severely pissed off. What happened to the Rookie? He provided a great distraction, allowing Takato to get into the mansion and kill the target directly. Then he ran out of ammo and was eaten alive by guard dogs.

Takato didn't even spare the Rookie a glance as he ran to the extraction point. He didn't even want to waste a bullet to put him out of his misery. The guy was a jackass that refused to "follow orders from kids", as he had put it, regardless of the fact that the "kid" was his superior in every possible way. He served his purpose, and died doing his job.

It was for the best anyway. Had Takato been forced into another mission with that idiot, he would have killed the man himself. And he wouldn't have been as quick about it as the dogs were.

Takato got to his feet after Guilmon went back upstairs to do...whatever it was he was doing before Takato got back.

'I hope he's not messing with the computer again.' he remembered what had happened the last time.

Guilmon had discovered the wonders of the Google search engine. And, in his infinite innocence, decided to type in Takato's name. Well, apparently there was a pornstar that had been using the alias "Takato" for the past year. Guilmon recognized that the man wasn't his Tamer, but he didn't understand what the man was doing with those other two women. So, thinking that his Tamer was some kind of bottomless well of information, he asked Takato.

Now, this wouldn't have been so bad, had Guilmon not chosen the WORST possible moment to ask; a Tamer meeting. And EVERYONE was there, even Ryo and Henry's little sister, Suzie. And, to make matters even worse, Guilmon had printed out pictures, and had used a marker to circle anything he didn't understand about the pictures.

Out of all the things everyone expected him to do, chicken out, make up something incredibly stupid, or make an awkward joke, they never expected him to break down in a fit of laughter.

When asked why, all he said was, "It sucks to be me right now!" then kept laughing.

Later, after he and Guilmon were safely within the walls of the bakery, and Takato's parents were out, he told Guilmon most of what he knew about the "Birds and the Bees". But Guilmon, with his painfully short attention span, barely caught a word of it. He was content with the knowledge that his Tamer knew a lot about the subject, and figured he could ask him at anytime. So why pay attention now, when a bat had chosen that moment to make its presence known?

Takato sighed and went into the living room, where his father was still cradling the P90.

"So, I take it you like the gun?" Takato deadpanned.

Takehiro looked at him like he was insane. "Are you shitting me? Like it? I freakin' LOVE it! This thing is 6.6 pounds of pure ass-kickage!" he chuckled evilly. "How many mags did you get?"

Takato shrugged. "I only picked up two of the weapons, but I took all the ammo from everyone I killed, so...there should be around 4 or 500 magazines, total, around here, not including the stuff we already had. I probably picked up 30, or so, P90 mags." he picked up the large duffelbag sitting next to his dad. "All of the ammo should be in here." he looked at the bag and sweadropped. "But good luck sorting all this out."

"Don't worry, you'll be helping me when you get back." Takehiro said, not bothering to look up.

Takato shrugged. "Why not? I'm completely fuckin' wired right now, and I've got nothing to do. Hey, Mom, you going back to bed?"

Mie shook her head. "I'm just like you, I've got too much energy to burn, and nothing to do. I guess I'll take a trip down to the video store and pick up some movies."

Takato nodded and opened the door to walk out, but was hit in the face with a metal briefcase as soon as he stepped out. It didn't effect him at all, but it was annoying. He heard screeching tires and saw black, unmarked van speeding away.

"Payment's here." he tossed the briefcase to his mother. "Pick me up a few vids, too."

"Anything specific?"

"Hmm...Nope, surprise me." Takato ducked out, started up the truck, and drove off into the night.

(Morning, 7:30AM)

Takato's eyes snapped open as a ray of sunlight hit his exposed hand. Contrary to popular belief, vampires weren't burned to a crisp by sunlight. In fact, nothing short of a high-powered UV lamp would do anything to them. Cause them to be highly irritable, yes. Cause them to burst into flames and burn to ashes, no. And Takato, being of the upper echelon of the vampiric ranks, was completely resistant to all of the adverse effects of sunlight. Though he still didn't like it, all it really did was make him itch from time to time.

Unknown to his friends, that was the real reason he scratched the back of his head so much. It wasn't his fault that sunlight just happened to make him itch whenever he did something stupid or embarrassing.

Takato scratched his hand and sat up in his bed. Another misconception about vampires was that they all, even ones powerful enough to resist sunlight, needed to sleep during the day, and only awoke if they were in danger. Vampires rarely ever needed to sleep, as long as they had a steady supply of blood. Sleeping, for a vampire, was just like feeding. It recharged their powers, which were finite, and kept them from going berserk when they didn't feed.

This was the reason vampires went into hibernation when food supplies ran low. Otherwise they would go insane and destroy everything around them. Sleeping also helped them feel like normal people, since it let them keep the daytime scheduels they had as humans.

Guilmon also awoke at the same time as he Tamer, having gained the energy to do so through their bond.

"So, Takatomon, what are we doing today?" Guilmon asked as Takato walked into the bathroom.

"Don't know, but it's gotta be something fun...Something that we haven't done in a while. I do know one thing, though, we gotta get everyone together for this. It's Saturday, and I happen to know none of them have plans." Takato answered.

Guilmon rubbed his chin with a claw. "How about you do some of those magic tricks for them?"

"Great idea! They don't know I'm an 'ametuer' magician, and my 'act' is sure to freak them all out! But we gotta do something after that...I know! The new arcade that opened up last week! I'm pretty sure they haven't been able to get in yet, especially with their digimon. I'll call in that favor Shino owes me and we'll get in for free, partners and all!" Takato walked out of the bathroom, fully dressed for the day's activities.

"Yay! Arcade!" Takato was half expecting the dinosaur to ask what an arcade was, but, instead, he just grinned. "Now I can finally get my revenge on Renamon!"

Takato rose an eyebrow, then remembered the time Renamon had absolutely _destroyed_ Guilmon in a fighter jet flight simulator. Guilmon had been practicing with Ace Combat 6 for weeks, and felt he was ready to kick the kitsune's tail and make her eat his afterburner!

The Tamer just shook his head and went downstairs, his partner in tow.

"Morning, sweety!" Mie called from the kitchen.

"Morning, Mom!" Takato gave his mother a hug and a kiss. "What's for breakfast?"

"Oh, just the usual. Are you staying, or do you have other plans?"

Takato chuckled. "I swear you can read my mind sometimes."

Mie turned to him with a very creepy look and glowing eyes. "Only sometimes?"

Takato shrank into his seat and stared at his mother. 'Now I know why Dad is so whipped.' he thought.

"I wouldn't say he's whipped...He just knows how to follow orders! Must be the military background." Mie said cheerfully, then went back to cooking.

Takato just sat there, mouth agape, doing a perfect impression of a fish out of water. "You...You really can read my mind, can't you?"

Mie just turned and nodded with a smile. "You being a blood relative makes it easier, but yes, vampires can read minds. It's not an ability you'll pick up for at least another century, no matter how strong you are." she was about to turn back around, but stopped when she saw Takato's sad expression.

"Yeah...another century..." he stirred his glass of blood around a bit. "Do you ever get tired of it?"

Mie sighed, she knew what he was talking about. "To be honest, yes, sometimes I do. Outliving all of my friends, my previous husbands, everyone but my family. It does get tiresome, knowing that I'll probably walk this world for eternity, never changing, unless I want to. Changing my name every seventy, or so, years. It doesn't bother me nearly as much as it used to, but I still find myself thinking sometimes."

Takato continued to look at the blood, watching it swirl like a whirlpool. "How did you cope with it at first?"

"I did what all vampires eventually do; I asked my friends if they wanted to join me in immortality. All of them turned me down, and some even ran from me...But only one understood, and only he joined me." Mie smiled as she felt her husband's arms wrap around her waist from behind.

"And it was the best decision I ever made." Takehiro nuzzled his wife's neck, causing her to giggle.

"Oh, get a room, you two!" Takato downed his blood and looked away. Seeing his parents being _intimate_ was something he never enjoyed.

His father turned around with a smirk. "Hey, how would you feel if we said that to you when you, eventually, bring a ladyfriend home?"

Takato had the decency to blush and he got up from his seat. "Bye, Dad, Mom, I'll see you later." he waved to his parents.

"Bye, Son!" Takehiro waved as well.

Mie looked over and chucked the knife she was using in Takato's direction. It lodged itself in the wall next to the door, causing Takato to look back with wide eyes.

"Try to keep the magic 'tricks' to a minimum? The excuse that good magicians always keep their secrets only works for so long."

"Don't worry about it, Mom! I'm not going to do anything overly weird, like I did at that birthday party last year."

Takehiro scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Oh yeah, that was the time you took off your head and had a coversation with one of the little kids that wanted to know how to do it." he laughed. "That was a riot!"

Mie elbowed her husband in the ribs. "Oh yeah, shits and giggles! Do you have any idea how long it took me to convince Kate that it was just an illusion?"

Takato held up his hands. "Don't worry about it! You have my word that I'll stick to the minor stuff, card tricks and such. The farthest I'll go is...I don't know, maybe I'll pull out some of the spider tricks."

Mie held out her hand and the knife in the wall shuddered before pulling itself free and flying back into her hand. "I'll hold you to that. And if you're going to do the spider thing, make sure you use NON-lethal spiders!"

Takato rolled his eyes. "I make one little mistake and it stays with me for life!"

Takehiro laughed. "Hey, you know the old saying. When you're right, no one remembers. But when you're wrong, no one forgets!"

Mie elbowed him again. "The difference between a Pink-toed Tarantula and a Brazilian Wandering Spider is pretty damned big! Hardly what I'd call a 'little mistake'."

Takato used his finger to put an inverted cross over his chest. "Cross my heart, I won't freak anyone out too badly."

"Very funny. Just go, we'll see if you're a man of your word by the end of the day."

Takato smiled and left, Guilmon by his side with a mouthful of day-old Guilmon Bread.

Outside, Takato stopped dead in his tracks. "Whoa." was all he could say.

There, in front of the bakery, was the Chevy Avalanche he had dropped off last night! He had to say this about the Agency; they didn't do _anything_ slowly. Now he just had to hope they didn't forget/half-ass anything.

Shifting the truck into SUV mode, he had Guilmon sit in the back, since sitting in a car seat would be uncomfortable for him.

"Who are we going ot get first, Takatomon?" Guilmon asked.

"One: I'm not a digimon. Two: we're going after Rika and Renamon first." he started the truck and they were off.

(Ten Minutes Later)

Takato stopped his truck outside the gates to Rika's traditional Chinese-style home. He got out, along with Guilmon, and pushed the button in the intercom system.

"Yes, who is it?" the voice of Seiko Hata, Rika's grandmother, came through.

Takato adopted a German accent. "It is Takato, and I am here to take Rika out to a day of fun unt games, ja?"

Seiko's laughed at the teen's antics. "Hello, Takato! Rika's still asleep, even though I've tried to wake her up, so you may have to wait a bit. Come on in!" there was a buzzing noise and the gates opened.

Takato walked through and up to the door, which opened to reveal the not-so-old grandmother.

"My, my, I haven't seen you in a while, young man!" Seiko smiled as she gave Takato a hug, which he readily returned. She also gave Guilmon a hug. "And my favorite dinosaur is here as well!"

Guilmon grinned at being someone's favorite and returned the hug.

Takato smiled and stepped into the house after Seiko, after taking off his boots, of course.

"So, Ms. Hata, Rika's still asleep in here room?" Seiko nodded. "I'll go wake her up, then. We can't have a day of fun unt games wizzout her!" he adopted the German accent again, then made his way to Rika's room.

He stopped just around the corner and turned to Guilmon. "Okay, boy, you're job is to find Renamon and keep her occupied. If I run into her, I'm gonna have to outmanuever her, and that's gonna be too suspicious."

Guilmon saluted, then ran off to do something that would draw Renamon's attention.

Takato saw a yellow blur shoot by and slipped into Rika's room, finding the teen girl still asleep under the cover of her futon. Takato still didn't understand how she could sleep on a sheet on the floor as opposed to a real bed.

'Maybe my bed will do?' a part of him thought. That part was then locked in a secluded room in the back of Takato's mind, where it belonged when he wasn't on duty.

Rika, still completely unaware of the teen vampire in her room, was in the middle of a very _pleasant_ dream. One, coincidentally, involving the young man looming over her.

(Rika's Dream)

Rika was sitting up in her futon, looking suspiciously at her open window. She kicked off the cover and went to close it, but stopped cold when she noticed she was wearing a night gown, something she would never wear in real life. She knew she was dreaming, but it felt so real!

The cold air coming from the open window, the fine hairs on her body standing on end, the feeling of someone running their gloved fingers across her cheek...Wait a minute.

Rika whirled around, but found no one. "R-Renamon?" she called out, hoping that her ninja-like digimon partner would stop any intruders.

"She's not here right now." an obviously male voice whispered in her ear as strong arms snaked around her waist.

"L-Let go of m-me!" she managed to breathe out over the shudder that overtook her body at the feeling of the man's cool breath on her neck.

"Do you really want me to?" he pulled her into his chest and licked the nape of her neck gently.

Rika nearly melted into the embrace, but held strong, knowing that something was definitely wrong with this situation.

"Let. Go." she hissed.

"...As you wish, my Queen." the arms holding her gave way and allowed her to move, and move she did.

Rika nearly fell forward, but caught herself and turned around to see her "attacker". He was tall, near six and a half feet, and was wearing all black. Both his trenchcoat and hair blew to the side from a sudden gust of wind, revealing his handsome features.

Rika gasped, she knew this man! "T-T-Takato? What a-are you doing h-here?" she backed up as Takato took a step towards her.

Takato smirked, revealing a long fang, and took another step. "I'm here for you, my Queen." another step.

Rika took another step back. "Look, Gogglehead, because you're my friend, I'll give you until the count of five to leave before I have Renamon tear you apart. One..."

Takato just took another step as his smirk widened. "I told you, Renamon isn't here right now."

Rika continued to backstep. "Two...Three..."

Takato's smirk was now a full-fledged beartrap grin, and he took another step, gaining ground on Rika due to his longer legs.

"Four...Five." the young woman gasped as she felt the wall press up against her back.

Takato's eyes began to glow and he licked his lips. "Nowhere to go, now, my Queen." he suddenly closed the small distance between them as he lunged at her, pinning her to the wall.

Rika was terrified now. There was nothing she could do! It was like she instinctively knew she was up against a creature much stronger than her, something she had no hope of stopping without Renamon, but she wasn't coming, that much was apparent. Something inside of her was telling her not to resist anymore, telling her to give up...to give _in_.

"What do you want?" her words came out as more of a frightened whimper than a real question.

But she was answered nonetheless. Takato used his finger to lift her head and make her look into his eyes, which were no longer glowing, but shining with some unknown emotion.

"I want..." he leaned in until their lips were mere millimeters apart. "You." their lips connected and Rika instantly felt like she had been hooked to a car battery.

She had never felt anything like this before! Not even the first time she and Renamon had Biomerged was this intense! She was soon too deeply into the kiss to break away, and, instead, took control, ramming her tongue into Takato's mouth.

Before things could go any further, however, Rika was awakened from her steamy dream by someone poking her in the land of the living.

"Hey. Hey, you, wake up." Takato continued to poke his friend in different places, his finger following her everytime she tried to roll away. "You see? If you actually had a bed, there may have been some hope of escape. But nooo, you decide to sleep on the floor. Now you must face the wrath of Mr. Poke n' Prod!" he poked her again.

"Mmm, stop it, Mom...Justa...few more...minssss..." then she went back to her light snoring.

Takato looked around to make sure no one would see what he was about to do, then grew out a sharp claw on his index finger. Being careful not to cut Rika with the razor-sharp extention, Takato slowly and lightly raked the back of his claw over her now exposed cheek.

Rika's brow furrowed and she tried to shake off the pest she believed was bothering her. When it didn't go away, instead becoming more persistant, Rika's hand flew up and smacked her own cheek, attempting to squash the insect, but only succeeding in waking herself up.

"Wha?" was her oh, so intelligent waking word.

"About time, I was just about to bring out the big guns." Takato chuckled at Rika's bewildered expression and messy hair.

"...Goggles?" Rika narrowed her eyes, then pinched herself to make sure she wasn't still dreaming.

Takato noticed this and laughed. "What, am I so sexy you don't believe that I'm real?" he was tempted to strike some kind of cheesy pose, but decided against it.

Rika's eye twitched and she lashed out at the teen, who deftly dodged her uncoordinated attacks.

"Gogglehead? What are you doing in my room? And why this early?" Rika demanded.

Takato crouched in front of her, balancing perfectly on the balls of his feet. "I happen to know neither you, nor anyone else, have any plans for this weekend, so today is fun day! Get up and let's go!" Takato started bouncing around like a jackrabbit on speed.

Rika rose a delicate eyebrow. "It's 8:00 in the morning...We haven't even heard from you in nearly two weeks...and you expect us to just get up and go with you?"

Takato nodded. "Yep! I know I've been a terrible friend as of late, and I'm gonna make up for it today!" he gave her a serious look. "Whether you like it, or not."

Rika glared at him. "What, you'll take us against our will?" she had to hold back a blush, since her words reminded her of her dream.

Takato nodded again. "Uh-huh! And once you find out where we're going, you'll be begging me to go faster!"

Rika turned away to hide her blush as memories of previous dreams invaded her thoughts.

_"Oh...Yes! Faster...Takato..."_ she could hear her own husky, lust-filled voice calling out Takato's name as he took her exactly how she wanted.

Takato's sensitive nose easily picked up Rika's arousal, and he figured he had woken her up from a wet dream. But, being the friend he was, he decided to save her the embarrassment and not mention anything.

'Was it something I said?' he wondered.

Rika sighed and stood up, wrapping the sheet around her, and trudged over to the bathroom.

"What, you aren't decent?" Takato teased, but was silenced by one of Rika's patented Death Glares.

"Quiet, Goggle-Brain." she hissed, then walked into the bathroom and shut the door.

Takato rose an eyebrow. 'She has to be the only human I'm afraid of.'

A few minutes later, Rika came out wearing her standard clothing. Blue jeans, heart t-shirt, red sneakers, pretty much a scaled-up version of her old look.

"So, haven't seen you in a while, what've you been up to." Rika tried to make small-talk.

She absentmindedly looked Takato over, checking out the changes in both his apparel and body. He seemed like he had grown an inch or two, making him taller than all of their friends, and he had traded his old goggles in for a pair of Riddick-esque black ones. She could also see where he had starded shaving, and had to agree that it was a smart move. She just couldn't imagine him with a mustache or beard.(2)

Takato shrugged. "Oh, nothing much. Just working, really, just boring crap." he also looked Rika over, careful not to let his eyes linger on certain bodyparts too long. "How about you?"

Rika also shrugged. "Same as you, work."

Takato just nodded, then the awkward silence set in, which Takato broke.

"Okay, time to go! If you're hungry, we'll get the others and pick up whatever you all want along the way, my treat!" he didn't wait fro Rika's answer, he just picked her up, put her over his shoulder, and ran out of her room, making sure to grab her D-Arc and cards before leaving.

Rika almost let out a squeal, but held it in. She didn't even struggle, knowing that it was completely useless. Takato had muscles now!

'Big...strong muscles...Ack! No, bad Rika!' the girl fought down her blush as Takato put her on her feet.

"Oh, Takato!" said teen turned around and was glomped by Rika's mother, Rumiko Nonaka. "Where have you been all this time?" she asked, still hanging onto him.

Takato sweatdropped and hesitantly returned the "hug" given to him. "Hello, Ms. Nonaka."

"Please, call me Rumiko!" the woman smiled, finally letting go of the young man, though her eyes were still wandering.

Takato was starting to get uncomfortable with the situation. It wasn't that Rumiko wasn't attractive, she was downright hot, but she was Rika's _mother_! If Takato had been concerned with relationships, he'd have his sights set on Rika herself, if anyone, not her family.

Luckily, two things happened to end the awkward moment and let everyone carry on with their lives. One was Seiko walking by and dragging Rumiko with her, saying she needed help in the kitchen, but I caught her whisper of, "He's only seventeen!"

The second thing was Guilmon running by the open door, carrying a highly perplexed Renamon on his back.

"Yeah, you've got the right idea, Guilmon!" Takato picked Rika up again, closed the door behind him, and ran off towards the truck.

He placed her on her feet next to the truck and opened the door. "Ladies first." he gave a small bow.

Rika rolled her eyes and took a second to look at the truck before getting in. "Whoa, nice wheels." she gave an appreciative whistle.

Takato nodded. "It is, isn't it? One of the perks of my job; high pay."

Rika rose an eyebrow as she leaned against the vehicle. "Exactly how high?" she smirked, and Takato could tell she had a joke planned.

"Depends on what I'm doing that night." he gave the most vague answer possible.

"What are you, a male stripper?" her smirk widened, there was the joke.

"No, why? Do you think I could be one?" he stepped around the door and turned around. "I've heard it's all about the body and the ass for those jobs, the ladies love it. I've got the body, but I need a second opinion on the ass. Whadda ya' think?"

Rika actually had to turn her head to keep from staring at the ass offered to her, and to hide the new shade of red her face was sporting. She shoved her hands into her pockets when she noticed one moving towards Takato against her will, or so she thought. But the hand found its way out a second later and move towards its target with the speed and accuracy of a Sidewinder missile.

Takato gave a yelp as he felt Rika pinch him, HARD. He turned to her with a fake look of hurt and real disbelief. "_That_ good, eh?"

Rika narrowed her eyes. "Just wait until I find a lobster tank, then you're really gonna get it." she got into the truck.

Takato laughed before closing the door. "Sadist." he got into the driver's seat, started the truck again, and took off, exceeding the speed limit for that area by about 40mph.

That was pretty much how the next two hours went, Takato driving around the city picking up his friends and their digimon, which he was surprised could all fit comfortably in his truck. He hadn't noticed it before, but the guys that had worked on his truck had made it bigger. The only one who couldn't fit was Kazu's Guadromon, but he solved that problem, and surprised them all by having the large robot devolve into his Rookie form, Hagurumon.

"So, where are we going, Mr. Fun n' Games?" Ryo asked, still not having fully woken up.

Takato just glanced at him through the rearview mirror. "You'll see. You guys hungry?" he didn't really need to ask, and the odd looks he recieved confirmed that. "Okay...Anywhere in particular?" Kazu was about to say something, but Takato beat him to the punch. "Hooters isn't open, Kazu...I called."

The males of the group, who knew what Hooters was, laughed, while the females glared at the driver.

Rika gave him a good hit on the arm, which he overreacted to.

"OH, MY ARM!" he let go of the steering wheel and clutched his arm in fake pain. "It hurts, oh God, it hurts! I think I have a bloodclot!" he screamed overdramatically.

"TAKATO!" everyone yelled as the truck started to veer into oncoming traffic.

Takato grabbed the wheel and brought the vehicle over to the right lane just in time, and promptly laughed his ass off.

"Holy crap, you should have seen your faces! You were all like, 'Aaaaahhhh, we're gonna die!', it was priceless!"

Henry glared at his friend. "Where did you learn to drive?"

"Just call me the Dukemon of Hazard!" Takato laughed at the looks of fear on his friend's faces.

(One Hour Later)

After finally deciding on where to eat, the Tamers and their digimon walked into a relatively large diner, in which they were greeted enthusiastically by the owner, who led them to a large room labeled "Private Booth". He also said their meals were on the house, since Takato, apparently, frequented the place and had taken down some thugs that were trying to rob the diner one day. But Takato turned him down, saying that he was paying for EVERYTHING today, and that he'd take a raincheck on the free food.

"My, my, when did we become rich, Chumly?" Kazu asked.

Takato shrugged. "What can I say? I get paid very well to work the...Graveyard shift."

Kenta rose an eyebrow. "You work the night shift, too?" Takato nodded. "Oh man, how do you still have that much energy after working all night, do you sleep all day?"

"Nope."

"Then what's your secret?"

Takato picked up his cup of coffee. "It ain't decaf, I can't tell ya' that much." then downed the scalding liquid in one go, gaining a bit of applause.

"How the hell'd you do that?" Ryo asked, scratching his head and taking a sip of his own coffee, wincing as it burned his tongue.

"Magic." Takato pulled out a deck of cards.

"Oh, so you're a magician now?" Terriermon quipped.

"Meh, I know a few tricks." Takato noticed that he had their attention now, especially Renamon's. "What?"

"Well? Don't keep us in suspense, show us what you can do!" Kazu encouraged.

Takato chuckled. "Alright, but promise not to freak out on me, no matter what happens?"

They all laughed. "Come on, Takato, after all we've been through, you think some card tricks will freak us out?" Henry snickered a bit.

"Who said I was doing card tricks?" Takato's brow furrowed. "Let me see your drink for a second."

Henry handed him his glass of water, then watched Takato take a swig and spit an ice cube back into it. "Hey!"

"What the hell's wrong with you, man?" Takato looked at Henry like he had grown a second head.

Henry, as well as everyone else, gave him the same look. "What?"

Takato handed Henry the glass. The blue-haired teen looked in, then screamed and dropped it. "What the hell?"

Everyone looked at the class, and Jeri screamed when a large tarantula crawled out, then stomped on it.(3)

"Hey!" Suzie whined. "I wanted to keep it!" something everyone had to notice when visiting Henry's home was that there were no insects or arachnids whatsoever. The reason? Suzie had a jar for everything.

They all looked at Takato, who was just sitting back with a smug look on his face.

"I'm well above card tricks, Henroid."

Henry deadpanned, then looked at his partner, silently cursing him for making the nickname up.

"But I do those, too." Takato shuffled the deck and then scattered them all over the table. "Rika, you want to volunteer for this one?"

Rika narrowed her eyes. "Is this another spider trick?" she wasn't really afraid of spiders, but the really big ones freaked her out.

"No, I don't like to use the same kind of trick on someone twice." he smirked.

Rika rose an eyebrow. "What are you-!" she stiffened as she felt something under her shirt crawling up her back and around to the front of her body. She tried to move, but Takato held her arm firmly in his grasp, then pointed at the rather large lump traveling down her arm from her shoulder. He lifted the sleeve of her shirt, allowing the tarantula to crawl out and into his hand. Another thing about the trick was that the tarantula was the same one that was just on the floor, which Jeri had stomped on.

There was nothing but complete silence now, no one knew what to think! Sure, they had all seen the likes of Criss Angel and David Blain, but now they couldn't debate about authenticity when they had seen it firsthand.

Takato took the tarantula and crushed it in his hand, then opened it, revealing a sparrow, which he let fly out of the open window next to the booth.

"Now, for the card trick." he shuffled the deck, then flung them all over the table. He picked up a random card, licked the back, then put it on his forehead. "Alright, someone cover my eyes, and Rika, hold my hands to make sure I don't do any of that 'sleight of hand' crap. But first, pick up a random card, don't let me see it, and put it facedown on your forehead, like I did."

Jeri covered Takato's eyes with her hands and Rike stuck a card to her forehead. "Now what?" Rika asked.

"See the card on my head? Memorize what it is. Then show your card to everyone else and stick it back on your forehead, so I have no way to see it."

Rika did as she was told, showing everyone the Queen of Clubs, then stuck it back on her forehead facedown. She also memorized the Seven of Diamonds on Takato's head. "Okay."

"Alright, everyone got both cards memorize?" a chorus of affirmatives. "Okay then. Someone take the cards and tear them both into four pieces, then pick out two new cards, memorize them, and place them facedown on top of our heads."

Kazu tore the cards up, then picked out two new ones, a Six of Spades and a Nine of Hearts, and placed the six on Rika's head, and the nine on Takato's.

"Done."

"Alright, you've got all four cards memorized?" another round of affirmatives. "Now you're going to see the cards on our heads turn into the cards that you just tore up, and vice versa. Are you ready? Here we go." he was silent for a few seconds, then both cards on his and Rika's head shuddered slightly and his smirked. "It's done, pick up the cards." Jeri uncovered his eyes.

Kazu picked up the card on Takato's head and his eyes widened. "No. Freakin'. Way!" it was the Seven of Diamonds.

Ryo took Rika's card. "Holy shit!" it was the Queen of Clubs.

"Now look at the card you tore up." Takato pointed at the pieces.

Henry took one, as did Renamon, and them both looked at Takato like he was a ghost, or something.

"Six of Spades." Henry breathed out in disbelief.

"Nine of Hearts." Renamon eyed Takato suspiciously.

Suzie giggled and clapped, she loved magic tricks!

"And there you go." Takato sat back again just as the food came.

They all sat down to eat breakfast, but they still eyed Takato warily, and looked quite paranoid. Even Guilmon didn't wolf his food down like he normally did, fearing that he might accidentally eat a spider.

Takato, of course, knew exactly why he was getting all of the stares, and decided to go for the kill after they were all done.

(Thirty Minutes Later)

Takato sat back and sighed contently. "That was delicious! How about you guys?"

Everyone nodded and smiled. "I have to admit," Henry started, "when you first...kidnapped me and Suzie, I didn't know what to expect out of you. But this is turning into a great day!"

Rika nodded in agreement. "Same here, Gogglehead. I don't know how you managed to avoid Renamon and get into my room, but I've got to admit that now I'm glad you did."

Takato held up his hand and shook his head. "I have Guilmon to thank for that. I couldn't outninja Renamon, so I had Guilmon distract her." he looked at the red dinosaur. "What did you do, anyway?"

Guilmon fidgeted, looking for the right words. But Renamon decided to answer for him.

"He lit the contents of a trashcan on fire." the vixen glared at Guilmon, who shrunk away from her.

Takato just looked at his partner sternly, like he was about to scold him, then gave him a thumbs up and a grin. This gained him another hit from Rika, which gained everyone else another overdramatic show.

"OWW! I think you broke it this time!" Takato fell over onto the floor and groaned in pain.

The Tamers and their digimon rolled their eyes at their friend's antics, but laughed anyway. Takato got back into his seat and sighed again.

"Well, I guess we should get go-!" he suddenly stopped and began to look ill.

"Takato?" Jeri asked, worry apparent in her voice.

Takato coughed a couple of times, like he was choking, then tilted his head back and opened his mouth. Everyone gasped in shock and disgust as another tarantula crawled out of his mouth and down his chest.

Jeri nearly ran away screaming, but decided to take shelter in Henry's arms instead, must to his surprise, and liking.

Suzie clapped like she was enjoying a show at her birthday party, while pretty much everyone else looked a little green, and Renamon was giving Takato a look that was creeping him out.

The teen vampire scratched the back of his head, this time out of real embarrassment. "A bit too much?" he recieved nods. "Ah well, I'm sorry. Here, let me make it up to, Jeri." he grabbed her glass, which was one-third full of water, wrapped a napkin around it to hide the contents, and put his hand over the top. "What's your favorite snack food?" he asked her with a smile.

Jeri was hesitant to dislodge herself from Henry, but let go, slowly, when she noticed the spider was gone. "Um...I-I guess...Cheese Curls?" her mood increased just by thinking about the crunchy little things.

Takato smiled. "Cheese Curls it is!" he lifted the glass, then smashed it down on the table, startling some of the others. He unwrapped the napkin to reveal the glass, which had previously contained water from melted ice, now nearly overflowing with Cheese Curls, which he gave to Jeri.

Jeri squealed and happily ate one, and was even more surprised to find that they weren't soggy or anything!

Takato chuckled and stood up. "Well, let's get going, the day has just begun!" he pumped his fist into the air and walked out of the private booth, Guilmon following loyally.

"To the arcade!" Takato pointed forward after they had all piled into the truck. "Hi-ho, Silver, AWAAAAAAAYYYY!" he shouted before peeling out of the parking lot.

* * *

And the chapter ends with one of my favorite lines ever in a Jim Carry movie, from Ace Ventura 2: When Nature Calls.

I came up with the idea for Takato being a "magician" because I needed him to have a way to release his stored up powers without killing anyone or destroying something. The powers, magic, and all that good stuff will be explained later in the story. But, for now, let's just have fun with it, shall we?

Like I said before, I have next to no idea where I'm going with this story, and it's mainly just for fun. I've got some kickass ideas, but none of them involve the Omegavice, and very few of them involve the Digital world. But I do have something up my sleave that I can use to combine vampire mythology, the digital world, the Omegavice, and the rest of the Tamers.

(1) A digital cookie to whoever can tell me what that code means!)

(2) Seriously, I want you to try and invision that right now. It'll be worse than Vegeta's monstrosity from Dragonball GT!

(3) I have magician Criss Angel to thank for that trick.)

Until next time...

Jason Out!


	3. One Magical Day: Son Of A Bitch!

Well shit. How long has it been since I've updated this? Half a year, or something like that? Goddamn!

Ah well. This story, out of all three, has the least potential, in my view. But that's actually starting to change. The more I write, the more doors open up to me, and the doors that opened during this chapter alone have led to some pretty interesting stuff, as you'll see. I still say this story has the least potential, and the number of reviews proves it, in my mind. But, not that I like to toot my on horn(shut up, perverts)or anything, but when you've got stories of this caliber, even the one with the least potential is pretty good...Okay, mini-Ego Trip over.

(Update - 3/26/09)

One thing you'll notice about this chapter is that I've taken the focus off of the comedy here. This chapter is pretty much all character developement and plot progression. There's also a little treat in here for all my fellow Gamers out there. Also, some of you may have noticed that the character known as "Don" earlier in the story is named Shino. At first I was going for a sort of nickname-type thing, where Shino was a fan of mafia movies and like to call himself "Don Shino", and preferred to be called simply "Don" by friends. He was also originally supposed to frequently impersonate Vito Andolini Corleone(a.k.a Don Vito Corleone, played by Marlon Brando, for those of you living under rocks)and quote lines from The Godfather. But I decided that it would be more cheesy than funny, and that kind of attitude would be better suited to an antagonist character that will appear later. Even though I decided this a while ago, I only recently went back and corrected the name.

Well, that's about it, so...

Enjoy chapter 3 of Tamer of the Night!

* * *

During the ride, Takato couldn't help but notice that everyone was keeping to themselves. Renamon was still staring at him; Jeri was checking her cheesepuffs for spiders; Suzie was still pouting about not being able to keep a tarantula; and Rika, who was in the passenger seat once again, was staring at the glove box like it was a hungry wolf.

"Okay, what's up with you people? Did I freak you out that much? Because if I did, how the hell did you make it through the Digital World?" Takato looked at them all through the rear-view mirror.

"It's a combination of a lot of things. Our day-to-day lives, the fact that we haven't seen you in forever, then you show up, basically abduct us, and break out magic tricks that are going to have us paranoid for life." Henry spoke and the others nodded.

Takato narrowed his eyes behind his sunglasses, something else was on their minds, he could tell. He knew them all too well for them to hide things from him. But he decided not to push it. Today was meant to be a fun day, and he wouldn't ruin it by bringing up their personal problems, especially not in front of everyone else.

He looked at Renamon. "Are you trying to activate x-ray vision, or something? I swear I can feel the back of my head burning right now." the fox looked away with a small, unnoticable blush.

Even though he didn't see it, Terriermon knew what Renamon was doing, and instantly got on her about it. "Renamon's got the hots for Takato!"...this is what he would have said, but he didn't get past "Rena" before Henry had his hand over his mouth.

"At the very least, could you wait until we're not in such a confined space?" Henry whispered.

Takato chuckled a bit and looked at Rika, taking notice of the fact that the arcade was now in sight. "And you?"

Rika jumped a bit. "Hm? What?"

Takato cocked an eyebrow. "Don't 'what' me, you're looking at the glove box like it's about to kill you."

Rika scoffed, returning to her normal self again. "From what I've seen out of you today, what's in there might kill me."

Takato's eye twitched a bit as he remembered that there was an AMT AutoMag V that he had put in there as a precaution. Due to his abilities, Takato was never without his guns, but, if he happened to have someone in the truck with him that didn't have a weapon with them, he couldn't very well leave them defenseless while he stepped out of the truck to deal with the enemy.

'I knew locking that thing before I picked them up was a good idea.' he chuckled. "Don't worry, I've got it locked. Besides, it only bites when I tell it to."

Rika cocked her head slightly at that last part, but remained silent as they pulled into the parking lot of the arcade.

Stepping out of the truck, humans and digimon alike stretched, loosening up for some intense gaming. While Takato's truck certainly was roomy, it was made to fit eight passengers comfortably, and only human passengers were taken into account. With the digimon, it was a whole other story, though it wasn't all too bad.

"I still don't know how we're supposed to get in here, Chumly. Not only would it be a hassel with the digimon, this place is already packed!" Kazu said.

"And don't forget that we've developed something of a fanclub...They're going to tear us apart as soon as they see us!" Kenta pointed out while shuddering. He was the slowest out of the whole group, and had been caught by rabid fangirls a few too many times to risk it happening again. The bespecticled teen fancied himself a romantic at heart, and didn't like the idea of losing his virginity to a girl he didn't love...or even know.

"Guys, guys, don't worry about it! The guy that owns this place owes me a favor, and I'm calling it in today." it was true, just like the owner of the diner, Takato had kicked the crap out of some "rowdy teenagers" that had been harassing Shino, the owner of the arcade. What neither the Tamers nor Shino(or so Takato thought at the time) knew was that these "teenagers" were, infact, vampires in their mid thirties. They were using their powers to keep the appearance of teenagers so they could attend high school and go after younger blood.

Another thing no one else knew was that Takato hadn't just taken then down, he had taken them _out_. Four .460 Rowland rounds, an incineration spell, four piles of smoldering ash in a dark alley, and no one was the wiser. Despite the decent muzzle flash and sound report of Takato's guns, they were still nothing that an anti-sound field couldn't take care of.

"A lot of people seem to owe you favors, don't they?" Ryo nudged Takato with his elbow.

Takato turned to the other teen with a false grin. "Don't you owe me a favor as well?"

Ryo furrowed his brow. "For what?"

"For setting you up that Suzako girl."

"What? She was a damned psychopath! She thought she was a werewolf, for God's sake!" Ryo exclaimed.

"But you got laid, did you not?" Takato crossed his arms.

Ryo hung his head, he couldn't argue that Suzako had made his first time truely unforgettable...and his second, third, forth, fifth...you get the picture. Now that he thought about it, Ryo knew that he, in fact, owed Takato several favors, but he wasn't about to mention that.

"I guess you're right...I still say she was a psycho." the older teen grumbled.

Takato waved him off. "Yeah, yeah, whatever, just keep it down when we get in there. She's gonna be there, too, with her friends, and her hearing is just plain godly." 'I hope she doesn't make a scene...or force me to make one.'

Oh yes, Takato knew Suzako Asaji very well. Not only was she in most of his classes, she was also the neice of the teacher that almost seemed to stalk Kazu, Kenta and himself; Ms. Nami Asaji. Seriously, She had been their teacher ever since seventh grade! But she always seemed just as surprised, and horrified, as they were when they met after a three month break from school after opening the homeroom door.

Contrary to what most people believed, Suzako didn't get good grades in her aunt's classes because she was family...Okay, so that actually was the reason, but not in the way most thought. Nami watched her like a hawk whenever they were together. Suzako had to sit in the front of the class, where she wouldn't be distracted by ogling boys and couldn't use the excuse of not being able to see the board.

To her, however, there was a lone upside to sitting in the front, and that was being next to Takato. As soon as the "Three Stooges", as Rika called them, stepped through the door, Ms. Asaji had slammed her head on the desk mumbling a near-silent "Not again", and immediately split them all up. Kazu sat by himself in the back corner, where his behavior would only affect himself. Kenta was seated in the middle of a ring of girls, and, with his shy nature, he rarely ever said a word, and constantly answered questions to show off his intelligence in hopes of impressing at least one of the girls around him. In short, his desperate want of a girlfriend kept him in line, though he was never really a problem by himself, as Kazu was the real ringleader. Takato...well, there was really nothing she could do to keep him in line, since him interacting with others wasn't the problem, it was his constant daydreaming. No matter where she put him, he'd eventually drift off into his own little world. If he was in the corner, it was even worse, since no one would bother to wake him from his fantasies, even if it was just to be mean. At least at the front of the class she could easily catch him, sometimes even before he started, and keep him on-task.

But the fact that she constantly hounded him wasn't why Takato knew Suzako so well. No, it was the fact that he was the object of her nymphomanic desires. You see, Suzako was, in fact, a werewolf, or Shewolf, as they were often called. During one of Takato's nightly hunts, he had come across her crying in the park, in her fully trasformed state. To say it was unnerving to see seven foot tall, heavily muscled supernatural creature sitting on a park bench bawling its eyes out would be an understatement.

(Flashback)

Takato cautiously stalked up to the werewolf. Just because it was crying didn't mean it wasn't lethal, it could have been a trap for all he knew. Pulling out his custom .460XVR S&W revolver(1), Takato cocked the hammer back, gaining the beast's attention, and pointed it at the werewolf.

What happened next was far from what he had expected. Instead of lunging at him with a ferocious roar, or even giving him a feral growl as a warning, the werewolf's eyes widened and it cowered before him, crying even more.

"Please...Please don't shoot!" the werewolf, now identified by the sound of its voice, regardless of the heavy distortion, as a Shewolf, pleaded with the young vampire.

Takato cocked his head to the side, keeping his gun trained on the creature before him. "Why shouldn't I?"

"Why should you? I've never hurt anyone, not even on accident! My Mom told me about you Hunters, how you kill indiscriminately, not caring if the ones you're killing are innocent or not! None of you ever seem to understand that we can be the victims! You think I wanted this?" the wolfgirl gestured to herself, clearly repulsed by her own appearance. "Look at me!" she collapsed onto the bench, which groaned in protest to her weight, which made her cry even more.

Takato's hand trembled. He knew it was his job, but she had a point, and as hard as he tried, he couldn't bring himself to just blow the brains out of a crying girl that had done nothing wrong. With a frustrated sigh, Takato slipped his gun back into his trenchcoat and plopped himself down beside the shewolf, startling her.

"You...aren't going to kill me?" she seemed genuinely surprised, and it made Takato feel like shit.

"You told me I have no reason to, and I don't smell any blood on you, human or otherwise...Makes me wonder just how you've even got enough strength to even be in that form." speaking of blood, Takato pulled a packet out from one of his inner coat pockets and leasurly drained it while leaning back to lounge on the bench. "So, what's your story?"

"Shouldn't you explain yourself first?"

"Ah, right, where are my manners? Can't really tell you much, I'm an assassin known as Seventeen, Hunting is just a passtime for me, and I'm a vampire, which I'm sure you already know...?" Seventeen(2) saw that the shewolf was staring at him like he had grown a second head. "...You didn't sense that I was a vampire?" she shook her head. "Great...How long have you been a werewolf?"

"I was born as one." the wolfgirl answered, now much more comfortable in the vampire's presence. Her mother had told her that vampires and werewolves were ancient enemies, and couldn't stand to be near one another for long periods of time without fighting, but she didn't feel that at all.

Seventeen's eyebrows shot up at the answer. "How old are you?"

"Seventeen." she stiffled a giggle as she thought of the Hunter's alias.

Seventeen's jaw almost dropped. "How the fuck have you stayed alive this long? You can't sense other Nightspawn(3), I can tell you barely have a handle on your powers, and you obviously don't have that natural 'warning bell' instinct that warns you of when a vampire is near...Hmm." he removed his sunglasses and used his Blood Vision on the werewolf. "Well that explains it..."

"Explains what?"

"You have a long-term barrier spell around you, keeps others from recognising you as a werewolf. Unfortunately, it's also combined with a suppression spell that's screwing with your powers and your instincts. But look on the bright side, it's also keeping you calm so I'm not forced to put a bullet between your eyes!" Seventeen grinned, his fangs glinting in the moonlight.

The shewolf giggled nervously. She had been told, by her mother, about both Hunters and vampires, and nothing that she heard about them was good. Hunters were ruthless killers that would stop at nothing and go through anyone, innocent or not, to get to their prey. Vampires were amongst the most powerful of Nightspawn, as was the popular name for supernatural creatures, gifted with enhanced physical abilities as well as vicious intelligence and incredible magic. It was well known, amongst the Nightspawn, that Hunters and vampires were almost always at war. But it was also no secret that either one of them wouldn't hesitate to put their animosity aside in favor of killing a werewolf.

But, despite all that, here she was, sitting next to a vampiric Hunter that had shown up pointing a rather large gun at her, and she was still alive, and seemingly in no immediate danger.

"So," Seventeen decided to start a conversation, "you don't like the form you're in now?" the shewolf shook her head. "And you don't know how to regress back to halfing, or better yet, human form?" another shake of the head. "I see...Stand up." Seventeen's voice left no room for argument.

The werewolf did as she was told, rising up to her full height of six foot eleven, not including her ears, towering above Seventeen.

"You know, you're a lot less intimidating from up here." the shewolf giggled.

Seventeen cocked his head to the side in annoyance. "Oh really?" he slipped off his shades and stared into her eyes with his glowing crimson orbs. He then released a fraction of his Mana and, using his eyes, sent it directly into the shewolf's eyes, through her optic nerve, and into her brain, where it set about screwing with her perception of reality.

The wolfgirl suddenly felt dizzy as the world around her began to bend and shift in unnatural ways, the only thing not moving was the Hunter before her. But she quickly noted that he was no longer a Hunter, he was some kind of grotesque monster standing at least five feet over her impressive height. The beast growled, its small, blood-red eyes glaring down at her. Its "lips" curled up in a snarl, revealing rows of fangs, each almost as long as her middle finger in her human form, and seemingly glowing as the pale moonlight reflected off of their ivory surfaces.

_**"How about now?" **_the demon spoke, its terrible, deep, undulating voice sending a spike of raw fear through her mind and a violent shiver down her spine.

"Okay, you're scary again." the shewolf whimpered.

The creature suddenly disappeared and the Hunter was standing in its place again. "Good! I've got a reputation to uphold, you know...Okay, maybe not that much of one, but I need as much 'street cred' as I can get, being the new guy on the block and all." he shrugged. "Now then, down to business. I'm going to alter that spell placed on you. This will allow you to not only control your powers, but control how much of your powers you'll use. If you want superhuman strength without 'wolfing out', fine. You want to be able to beat the trackstar of your school while running backwards with your shoes untied, that's cool." the vampire placed his hand over the werewolf's heart. "This may hurt at first, since I'm going to force the change back to human, but after this you'll be able to change at will, anytime, day or night. That is, of course, with practice. Are you ready?" receiving a tentative nod, Seventeen began to chant the ancient language that was used to cast more powerful spells. To a language specialist, it would sound like a combination of Latin, German and Norwegian, but it was actually one that predated all of them, even Latin.

Glowing runes suddenly appeared all over the shewolf's body, then more surrounded the vampire's hand. These new runes spread in different directions, each one overlapping another rune that was already on her body. Once the old seal was overridden, the new seal took its place and the werewolf disappeared in a flash of blue light, and in her place stood a naked girl about a third of the size of the shewolf.

"There we are..." Takato trailed off and drank in the curves of the girl in front of him.(4)

"W-What?" the girl shuddered, she didn't like the way he was looking at her.

The teenage Hunter simply let out a wolf whistle and pointed at her.

"PERVERT!" the girl screamed and tried to cover herself.

The vampire simply cocked his head to the side. "So?" then, with a sigh, he took off his trenchcoat and drapped it over the girl. "Now that that's out of the way, you got a name, or am I gonna have to call you 'Wolfgirl' all the time?"

The girl shot him a glare, but couldn't hold it for long when she stared into the reflective lenses of his glasses.

"Suzako Asaji..."

This threw Takato for a loop, he new she smelled familiar, but he would never have guessed that this was the girl that sat within arm's reach of him for an hour and a half five days a week.

'Seriously, how did I miss that?' he thought. "Nice to meet you, Suzako. Sorry I can't tell you my name, but I can take you home. Where do you live?" he knew she lived somewhere near Ms. Asaji's apartment complex, but not her exact location.

"About three blocks East of here, off of 20th."(5) Suzako yelped as she found herself being scooped up by the vampire.

"I know that neighborhood." of course he did, it used to be crawling with Dregs(6) before he took up Hunting. "I'll take get you there, you just tell me where to drop you off." with that, the vampiric Hunter and his cargo disappeared into the mysterious fog that had suddenly rolled in.

Two minutes later, both Nightspawn found themselves standing atop a building directly across from the large apartment complex Suzako designated as the one she and her family resided in.

"That's it, the one with the red door." Suzako pointed out the apartment she and her family, consisting of her mother and her older brother, resided in.

Takato knew he had to be careful. Werewolves, in any form, had an exceptional sense of smell, and the last thing he needed was Suzako's mother bashing down the door in her tranformed state just to get at him. She'd probably already tear him a new one just for being in her territory, but bringing home her _naked_ daughter? Takato wasn't sure even silver bullets would save him in that case.

'Might be getting some use out of you afterall.' Takato thought as the image of a .460 S&W round obliterating a charging werewolf's head entered his mind. Under normal circumstances, one of his twin H&K Mark 23s would have been more than enough to take down a werewolf with a .460 Rowland(7) right between the eyes. But there were times when it wasn't enough to just put a hole in the creature's brain. Sometimes you had to splatter the whole damn thing all over ground.

"Let's just hope it doesn't come to that." Takato muttered.

"What?" Suzako's enhanced hearing picked up the sound of his voice, but she'd been too preoccupied with thinking about what her mother would do should she find the vampire.

"Nothing. Is there a window I could go through? I'm not about to use the front door." front doors almost always led to the worst-case scenario becoming reality.

"No, but there's the sliding glass door on the balcony in the back." Suzako answered, coming to the same conclusion as the Hunter.

"Great, the back door. Almost as bad as the front." people tended to expect you to come through the back door. The movies had ruined that point of entry for the real assassins.

Suzako suddenly went into a giggling fit. "That...sounded...so wrong!" her brother always saw the perverted side of things, and she supposed his habits rubbed off on her.

"Yeah, yeah, be quiet before I use you as a lawn dart." he wouldn't really do it, but she didn't know that.

"Oh, lighten up!" Suzako whined.

The vampire just snorted as he walked along the roof of the apartment complex with an ancient vampire trick. He used his powers to create pockets of air dense enough for him to walk on. This was the key to the vampire's legendary stealth and their fabled, hollywood-style levitation. He made absolutely no noise while moving because his feet never actually touched a solid surface.

Dropping down to the back balcony, Takato activated his blood vision to scan the apartment. But he wasn't surprised to find that he couldn't see anything within the apartment.

"Barrier Spell." the young assassin scoffed. 'Since when did werewolves know such advanced barrier and suppression spells? Something about this doesn't seem right. I'll have to ask the Boss if I can search through the archives for anything like this.'

"Well?" Suzako asked, wondering what was taking so long.

"This is where you get off." the vampire sat her on her feet. "With all the spells put on this apartment, there's no way I could get inside, get you to your room, and leave without getting caught. If I use magic, they'll sense it. If I open the door, I'll set off a security spell. You just go inside."

Suzako reached for the handle on the glass door, then blushed and pulled back. "But...what about...you know?"

Takato sighed. "Keep the coat, I'll be back for it later." there was nothing in the pockets that could be used against him, something he'd made sure of when he put the coat over her. He turned to leave, but was stopped by Suzako's hand on his shoulder.

"Wait! I...I wanted to say thank you..." she gave him a genuine smile and let him go before opening the sliding door and walking into her home.

But, before she closed it, Takato called out to her again.

"What your mother told you about Hunters and Vampires...is true. I'm an exception to the rule because I'm a professional, but other Hunters are just mercenaries and murderers. They don't care about who you are or what you have or haven't done. They only care about what you are, and they will kill you because of it. If you ever come across one, run, don't fight. You won't win, not at your level. And one last thing; don't let ANYONE tamper with that new spell. The results will be anything but good. Until we meet again, Suzako." with that, Agent Seventeen leapt off of the balcony rail and vanished into thin air in mid-fall.

Suzako closed the door and leaned against it. "Seventeen...He seems so familier." she gathered up the front of the coat, held it up to her nose, and proceeded to take a huge whiff of the vampire's scent, committing it to memory. 'I hope Mom doesn't freak out too much.' she knew she wouldn't be able to hide the coat from her family, and that the scent would drive them into a raging frenzy, but she hoped they would be more understanding anyway. 'It's not like he's my boyfriend or anything...Yet.' on this night, an obsession was born.

(End Flashback)

"Takato?" Rika poked her friend in the cheek for the fifth time, causing him to finally snap out of his trance. "You okay?"

"What? Oh, that, yeah, I'm fine...Just remembering a particularly...disturbing experience with Asaji's niece."

The excuse was easily bought, as they all knew the girl was constantly hounding him. Oh, if they only knew.

Rika's eye twitched a bit at the thought of some random bimbo going after what was hers, but she fought back the urge to find and strangle the girl. Takato wasn't hers, and she had no desire to claim him as such.

_'You know damn well that's a lie.' _that nagging little voice in the back of Rika's head taunted.

'You, shut up!'

"Rika? Is everything alright?" Viximon, who had devolved from Renamon to sit in her partner's lap, looked up at her Tamer with that ridiculously cute face of hers. It was actually pretty creepy because, even in her In-Training form, she kept her "Silent Warrior" disposition. It just wasn't natural for something so adorable to be so...serious.

"Of course, everything's fine." Rika assured with a small smile.

"Good. Now, can we get out of here? My leg's starting to fall asleep!" Kazu complained. Hagurumon wasn't allowed to hover in the truck, since he'd go flying forward and might kill someone if Takato had to slam on the breaks, so he took a place on Kazu's right leg. It was then that Kazu learned the Rookie was just as heavy as he looked.

"You people do realise that you can unlock and open the doors yourselves, right?" Takato deadpanned.

"The owner of this place owes YOU a favor, not us. Therefore, YOU have to get up off YOUR ass, and take us in there!" Rika pointed to the arcade.

Takato gave her a smirk. "Hm? Someone wants another free show, eh?" he yelped overdramatically when Rika hit him in the arm again.

"Just get out so we can go in. You're going to accept my DDR challenge today." the redhead said as she opened the passenger door and stepped out.

"The hell I am." Takato replied without hesitation. It wasn't that he _couldn't_ dance...it was that he despised Dance Dance Revolution with a passion. Not only did it have some of the most annoying techno music of all time, once you got to the higher levels, actual dancesteps and moves were completely foregone in favor of frantic stomping that looked not unlike a violent epileptic fit. He also didn't want to draw any unwanted attention with the fact that he could probably make that frantic stomping look good, something that no normal human could accomplish.

"Yes, you are." the look Rika was giving her friend was actually starting to make him sweat.

'Why does she scare me so much?' something was wrong here. This wasn't the comical, "Hell hath no fury" kind of fear, this was genuine terror that slowly, but surely, made its presence known within Takato whenever Rika looked at him like that. It was like some kind of deep-rooted, instinctual fear, like Rika was a being that it would be in his best interest to avoid. 'I'll have to ask the 'rents about it later.' his mother either had the answers, or she knew who did. "Remember what happened last time? I'd rather not go through that again." now THAT was an embarrassing moment. "Besides, you've got both the title of Digimon Queen and DDR Queen, what more do you want?" if he wanted to get out of this, he'd have to drag that ego of hers out from under the rug she'd swept it under over the years and appeal to it.

Rika sighed as Takato and the rest of her friends stepped out of the truck. She knew what he was doing and why he was doing it, but she couldn't call him on it and keep demanding that he dance with her, otherwise the others might get the idea that she wanted to dance with him for reasons other than humiliation and bragging rights. Which wasn't true. Not at all.

_'Liiiiiiiarrrrrrrrrr.'_ damned inner voices, always so...correct.

'Didn't I tell you to shut up?'

_'What can I say? I'm stubborn like that.'_

Before Rika even noticed, they were all at the entrance to the arcade, where there was actually a Bouncer.

"Hold it, I've got to see one ID before you go in here and play the more violent games, as I know you will." the big guy demanded in his oddly high-pitched voice.

"What?" Takato snorted. "Don't be a dick, man. I know you saw us pull up in that truck, and if I'm old enough to drive, I'm old enough to play some fucking Mortal Kombat!" his friends stared at him with raise eyebrows and, in Jeri's case, full-blown disbelief. It wasn't often they heard Takato drop an F-bomb, and it was never any less astonishing when they remembered that this was once a kid that said "Aw nuts" all the time.

Henry just covered his sister's ears and frowned.

"Be that as it may, I still need to see some ID." the Bouncer was having a bad day, and was just looking to piss someone else off, which was why he was giving these kids such a hard time.

"How much do you weigh?" Takato asked, sizing the Bouncer up.

"250, why?" it wasn't like the Bouncer would ever be the subject of a fat joke, so what did his weight matter?

"Hm, just wanted to know how much I'd be tossing into that dumpster over there in about five seconds." Takato jerked his head over to the half-ton dumpster at the side of the building.

Normally, the Bouncer would have just laughed and gotten right in the little punk's face, using his impressive stature of six and a half feet to scare him off. But there was a problem this time around, and that was the fact that this "little" punk was just as tall as he was, and, though he wasn't as big as him overall, there was something about him that told the Bouncer he wasn't bluffing.

Nodding in respect, the Bouncer sniffed. "A kid with some backbone...been a while since I've seen that, it's pretty rare nowadays."

Takato snorted. "Sad, isn't it?"(8)

"Mm-hm." the Bouncer stepped aside. "You're alright, kid. You and your..." he seemed to finally take notice of the digimon, but only gave them a once-over before shrugging, "friends can go in. Shino's expecting you anyway." he smirked as he saw the red-haired girl frown and glare at him.

"You mean you just gave us all that bullshit for no reason?" Rika's eye twitched when the Bouncer nodded.

"You, my friend, are an asshole." Takato chuckled.

"And damn proud of it." the large man rubbed his nose with his thumb while sniffing.

Following their friend inside, the Tamers each glared at the Bouncer as they passed him, each one making his smirk widen more and more.

They all missed the man turning to look at him with glowing yellow eyes, his smirk now a full-blown grin, revealing his fangs.

"Kids these days..." the vampire turned to look at Takato's truck, "they've got all the cool toys." in an instant he was standing next to the Chevy, sliding his hand over the hood. With a feral grin, he brought his fist up and smashed it down on the vehicle. Normally, anything short of a tank wasn't going to stand up to his power, so imagine his surprise when intense pain lanced through his entire arm and truck hadn't suffered so much as a dent. "What the hell?" he hissed, cradling his injured hand while it mended itself.

Despite the pain, another grin found its way to his face. 'Well, if you can't break it, take it.' he walked around to the side of the truck and grabbed hold of the driver's side door handle. At the same time he felt something grab his own leg and looked down to see a grotesque arm coming out from under the truck, its clawed hand wrapped completely around his right shin.

The Bouncer was ripped off of his feet and dragged under the truck before he even had a chance to scream. A series of cringe-inducing crunches, wet ripping noises, and low whimpers came out from under the truck as it rocked slightly. Then an eerie silence as a single small stream of blood slithered out from under the vehicle like a crimson snake, sizzling in the sunlight. It didn't get far before it was collected by what appeared to be a long, slimely tentacle...or a tongue.

Inside the arcade, Takato flashed a small smirk before he spotted a blonde, twenty-something year old man of average build wearing a white sneakers, blue jeans, and a brown unzipped hoody.

"Hey, Shino!" Takato greeted, clasping hands with the older male and allowing himself to be drawn in for a manhug. "Told you I was coming with the entire crew today!" her gestured to his friends, who each introduced themselves, even the digimon.

"Well, I've gotta say it's nice to meet the saviors of the world, and more than a bit of an honor to have 'em in my humble arcade." yeah, "humble" was the word that popped into people's heads when they stepped through the doors. Not "ridiculous", not "humongous", not "epileptastic", and certainly not "excessive". Oh no, "humble" was synonymous with "Shino's Game Palace". The blonde-haired, green-eyed man looked at Takato with a slight frown. "I was beginning to think you'd never show up." he checked his watch. "You're fifteen minutes late, and that ain't like you."

Takato shrugged. "Blame your bouncer for holding us up."

Shino rose an eyebrow. "Dude, this is an arcade. I don't have a bouncer. You think I want some meathead manhandling a little kid when he throws a fit after being beaten in Tekken? Yeah, no. I want no part of the legal shitstorm what would result from that."

Henry covered Suzie's ears again.

Rika's eyebrow twitched violently. "Wait a minute. You mean you didn't hire Mr. Asshat?"

Shino simply shook his head. "Nope."

Rika's face went blank and she cracked his knuckles menacingly. "I'll be right back, don't start without me." she turned to go back and give the "Bouncer" a piece of her mind, but was stopped by Takato's hand on her shoulder.

"Oh, come on, we're here now, so why let him take up even more of our time?" he flashed a knowing smirk, which disappeared as Rika turned to face him. "Besides, he's probably long gone by now." 'Probably halfway to becoming a turd.'

Rika sighed in resignation. "Oh, alright." she suddenly grabbed Takato's hand and dragged him off.

"Um...Where are we going?" Takato questioned.

Rika didn't answer, she just grinned evilly.

Behind them, Jeri nodded to herself with a smile. "They make a cute couple." she giggled and waved when she saw Takato turn his head to glare at her.

"'Cute' isn't the word I'd use for them." Ryo said, rubbing his chin, idly reminding himself to to shave when he got home. "'Insane', 'Monsterous', 'Diabolical', 'Terrifying'; those are the words I'd use. But hey, that's just me."

"I heard that!" Takato yelled.

"So?" Ryo replied.

Takato flipped him off.

"Hey, save it for Rika, you stud, you!" Kazu laughed, then frowned when Rika stopped walking. "You think she heard that?"

Rika turned a glare on them the likes of which they hadn't seen in almost five years.

"I think she heard that." Ryo started to sweat.

Rika let go of Takato's hand and pushed him aside as she stalked towards them.

"She heard that." Kazu and Ryo said in unison, both taking a couple steps back.

They saw Takato wave goodbye to them, a disarming smile plastered on his face.

Kazu looked at Ryo. "Run?"

Ryo nodded. "Run." with that, both Tamers shot off so fast one would think that the devil's personal hounds were after them. If one had asked them, they'd have preferred the hounds.

Takato chuckled and shook his head. Even after five years the group dynamic had changed very little. Henry was still the smart one; Rika was still the deadpan snark(9), though to a lesser extent than before; Jeri was the compassionate one; Kazu and Kenta were still the comic relief, often joined by Terriermon; and Takato was still the unofficial leader, though Rika was the one who held the most authority of them all. Ryo, having been the new guy long ago, didn't find his niche until three years after he joined them. Up until then, he usually just took Takato's role when he wasn't around. He was the team leader when Takato was nowhere to be found, and he was also the "Replacement Stooge" when he joined Kazu and Kenta. He was now the playboy/casanova.

He seemed to enjoy hitting on any decently attractive girl that wandered by, no matter who he was with at the time. At first they thought it was his attempt at making Rika jealous, but not only did Rika show no reaction(aside from pointing out just how lame some of his pick-up lines were), Ryo did it whether Rika was present or not. But, sometimes it did become a bit too much for them to handle, like the few occasions in which they all went to the mall.

The last time they'd done that, Ryo had hit on so many girls that they started to say they weren't interested before he ever said anything. He did get a few to talk to him, but it was ruined by Rika, who dragged him back to the group by his ear after telling the girls that he was "Just horny.", which somehow circulated throughout the entire mall in less than an hour. Every girl that they passed gave him odd looks, ranging from disgust and hatred to pity and sometimes even longing.

But it was all in good fun. If he was turned down, Ryo often went about sulking melodramatically, and sometimes launched into a comical "woe-was-me" monologue that could go on for fifteen minutes, and probably longer, but no one was willing to let it. When he wasn't turned down, Ryo would would break into an incredibly weird, yet oddly graceful dance, usually flashing a piece of paper with some chick's number on it. He would then suddenly stop, program the number into his phone, then calmly walk off like he hadn't just made a complete ass of himself in public.

Takato laughed to himself, drawing a couple of odd looks from the people who'd been watching him just stand there for three minutes while reminiscing.

"Hey, you gonna gawk, or are you gonna play some damn games?" Shino walked up next to Takato and pointed at the three younger teens who'd been staring at him. The kids looked at each other, then two of them walked over to the Time Crisis 3 game while the last went to check the balance of his game card.

After they left, Takato narrowed his eyes. "I didn't like the way they were looking at me." they weren't human, that much he could tell.

Shino sniffed. "Vampires?" he asked casually.

"Shh!" Takato hissed, looking around. "The walls have ears!"

"Yeah, yeah, and the hills have eyes." Shino rolled his eyes.

"Hey, that's my line!" Takato did say it a lot when he encountered paranoid people. It happened a lot during missions in which he had to meet an informant. Most of them were jittery, pencil-necked lab-nerds that looked like they were an owl hoot away from shitting themselves. 'Really, if the "walls have ears", why not pick a different fucking rendezvous point?' this same question had raged within his head during many a mission, but he always kept his mouth shut, like a good Agent. He wasn't paid to question the intelligence, or sanity, of the clients.

"So? It's about time it was used on you." Shino looked around to make sure no one was paying attention, then motioned for Takato to follow him. "Walk with me."

Takato complied. "Have you had any more problems with this place?"

Shino shook his head. "Nothing I wasn't able to take care of myself." he was a decently powerful mage, and could handle most of the newbie creatures easily enough, but the more experienced ones would be much more difficult to take down.

That was where Takato came in. Turns out that after he had shot those vampiric degenerates, he'd Shino had been able to see through the illusion he'd erected over the entrance to the alley and had seen him squeeze the trigger each time. After that Takato convinced the Agency to let Shino live as his informant on the activity of Nightspawn. Younger vampires and werewolves often frequented arcades to scout out potential prey, or just to have fun. The problem was that Nightspawn usually had different definitions of "fun" compared to humans. Fun, to Nightspawn, often meant destruction and carnage, and that was something that Takato couldn't let slide. It was in his contract.

So, Shino would use his powers to pick the Nightspawn out of his daily crowd and get names through personal sound amplification spells. He'd also pick up various conversations with this same method to determine whether or not the Nightspawn were a threat. Determining innocence was essential for Takato ever since his first meeting, as Seventeen, with Suzako.

If they weren't trouble makers, Takato would meet up with them anyway to put them on notice, telling them that there'd be a bullet with their name on it if they ever stepped out of line. If they were minor trouble makers, mostly guys using their powers to pull pranks on normal folks, they were also given a warning, though a much more painful one. The really bad ones, however, got a non-consensual lobotomy after Takato got any valuable information out of them. Then there were the rare cases of the "Superhero" Nightspawn, who believed their abilities were gifts that were to be used to defend those weaker than themselves. These guys needed to be given a reality check before the general public became aware of the existence of Nightspawn. That just wouldn't do, and the last thing the Agency wanted was a war between humans and Nightspawn. The smallscale wars between Hunter syndicates and Nightspawn clans were bad enough.

Takato eventually found himself walking into Shino's upstairs office, where one of his Mark 23s materialised in his hand and was pointed at the back of Shino's head.

"Who are you?" Takato demanded.

"What the hell? Dude, this is so not cool!" Shino's hands shot into the air, having seen enough movies and cop shows to know the procedure for "gun-pointed-at-head" situations.

"Answer the fucking question before I add a wind tunnel to your anatomy." the quicker he found out who this imposter was, the sooner he'd be able to find the real Shino.

"The fuck's your malfunction?" Shino's voice cracked as he began to sweat.

"Right now, you are. Who are you, and where's Shino? You're not going to like it if I have to ask again."

"Dammit, I AM Shino!"

"No, you're not. You fucked up two times. The first time was when those kids were looking at me and you asked if they were vampires. Shino checks EVERYONE that steps into this place, so he'd already know if they were human or not. The second time was with my line. Shino doesn't know it, since I've never said it around him, so why would he speak as though I said it to him all the time? I've only used that line on missions or when in the presence of another Agent. Release the spell and turn around so I can see your face." this person was from the Agency, and it was his day off, so Takato wasn't in the mood for this at all.

"Shino" sighed in resignation. "Fine, you win. Kouga, retrieve the mage." "his" voice became distinctly feminine as the illusion was dropped, revealing a woman with fairly short brownish-orange hair, who was actually a bit taller than Shino. From what he could see, she was quite the knockout. Perfect hourglass figure, accentuated by the almost ridculously tight blue jeans and one-size-too-small tubetop. She was slightly tanned and possessed a physique that would make an olympic gymnast green with envy. But what really drew his attention were the yin-yang earrings and the tribal phoenix tattoo on the small of her lower back just above her hips.

"Motoko. To what do I owe this little visit?" Takato knew this woman, he'd been on missions with her before. She was a Kitsune, a Nightspawn with mischievous tendancies, a laid back personality, and a strong affanity for illusion-based magic. They normally didn't go beyond general delinquency, and were never really taken seriously by anyone. This often proved to be a mistake, as most Kitsune were masters of Ninjutsu, REAL Ninjutsu, and accomplished theives. It was when Takato encountered his first Kitsune that he realised why the Renamon species was designed the way it was. Get rid of the stoic disposition and replace it with that of a lazy prankster, and you'd have a perfect Kitsune.

"It appears that you'll be needed for a mission afterall." Motoko turned around and crossed her arms over her C-cup breasts with a sigh. "Sorry to have to be the one to tell you, but I was the only Agent in the area at the time." she gave a sheepish smile. "Knockout" didn't quite do her justice. The heart-shaped face, the sparkling emerald eyes, the subtle hints of blue eyeliner, the pair of whisker-like marks adorning either cheek, the furry ears on top of her head; it all gave her an exotic beauty that no human woman could ever match.

But Takato had learned not to be entranced by her looks long ago and simply snorted. "Save it. Just tell me why you're here and why you found it necessary to fuck around with my friend and informant."

Just then Shino, wrapped in a cocoon made, strangely, out of vines, fell through the ceiling and landed painfully on the floor.

"Ugh..." the man groaned.

"Whoops." a boy, looking to be no more than thirteen, poked his head out from the hole in the ceiling.

Takato growled and leapt at the boy, grabbing his head and snatching him from his perch with ease, then throwing him to the ground.

"What the hell, Takato?" Motoko rushed to the boy's side.

Takato just shrugged and attended to his own friend. "Whoops." he looked at the vines that bound Shino and sighed, then tore them away with no real effort. "You alright?" he asked as he helped Shino to his feet.

Shino nodded and peeled the tape from his mouth. "Goddammit, when did I become a fucking freak magnet?"

"When you decided to take up the Dark Arts." Takato smirked a little.

"I'm starting to wish I never had. I mean fuck! Do you know how long I've been up there? Huh? Two hours. Two FUCKING HOURS!" Shino turned and glared at the two Nightspawn. "There was a vampire loitering around outside, and I was about to call you to get rid of him. But Ms. Shotacon and her underage sextoy decided to barge in here and attack me!"

Takato's expression darkened. "Really?" he turned to Motoko, who was noticably pale now. "Care to explain your reasons for that? Maybe give me some incentive to not blow your Familiar's head off and drain you dry?" he cracked a grin, exposing his fangs.

Motoko gulped, this was NOT a situation she wanted to be in. Takato valued his friends above all else, and whatever threatened them would have to face his wrath. Add to that the fact that he and herself didn't have the best history together, and "shit hitting the fan" didn't even begin to describe what would happen.

But, before the Kitsune could even utter a single word, her familar spoke up.

"You will not harm her!" the boy put himself in front of his master, arms held out with vines slithering out from under the sleeves of his green and yellow t-shirt.

"Says who?" Takato rose an eyebrow.

"I do!" Kouga growled out, more vines coming out from his brown shorts and wrapping around his legs like a sort of armor. His green hair, actually blades of grass, started to grow out until it became super-hardened zebra grass. He broke one of the blades off and wielded it like a sword.

"Really? And what can you do to stop me should I choose to drain every drop of blood from that _bitch_? What can you do, Fairy Boy?" Takato held out his hand and his massive .460 revolver appeared in a flash of red light.

The word "massive" didn't really do the weapon justice. "Monstrous" would be more accurate. At fifteen inches long and weighing just over four and a half pounds(unloaded), the gun appeared to be something you'd see in an anime, but not in real life. But this gun was even more of a monster than a normal S&W XVR due to the magical runes carved into it throughout the entire frame, including the cylinder and grip. Each rune modified the revolver, turning it into the perfect tool for a someone in Takato's line of work. Some runes strengthened the frame so it could handle any form of punishment, while others made cleaning the gun a thing of the past. There was also a special set of runes that allowed any form of magic to be channeled through the gun without it melting, disintegrating, or blowing up like a frag grenade. Most of the runes on the grip allowed Takato to summon the gun to his hand no matter where it was, but there was also a set that made the gun teleport directly to Takato if anyone took hold of it without his permission. Each rune had a function, and worked in conjunction with other runes that were for the same purpose, making sure that the gun was ready for anything at anytime, and would always be reliable. The blued finish was also a nice touch.

Shino eyed Takato warily, knowing that when the XVR came out so did Agent Seventeen. And when Seventeen came out, someone was going to die.

"Takato, chill out, man. They didn't rough me up too bad, you know? I appreciate the concern, but just because I'm human doesn't mean I'm _that_ fragile."

Takato simply glanced at Shino before returning his cold stare to Kouga. "I know that, Shino, but the fact that they roughed you up in the first place is cause enough for their elimination." he popped the cylinder out, revealing that the gun wasn't loaded. But, before anyone could sigh in relief, Takato produced one of the huge bullets and placed it in one of the five compartments, then snapped the cylinder back into place with a flick of his wrist. "We're going to play a little game, Fairy Boy."

Kouga snarled, his dark brown eyes beginning to glow an ethereal pale yellow. "I'm not a Fairy! I'm a Minor Earth Elemental, get it straight!" even if he was terrified beyond all belief at the moment, Kouga was still tired of people not acknowledging his power.

Takato snorted. "To be correct, you are a Forest Spirit, otherwise known as a Woodland Sprite. A Sprite is a subspecies of what kind of magical creature? A Fairy, that's right." he looked at Motoko, who was cowering behind her Familiar. "You're an Agent, yet you've got this little prick as a Familiar? Just by looking at him I can tell he failed 'Nightspawn 101'. Probably doesn't even know the difference between a Succubus and an Incubus."

Kouga blushed a bit and his eyes shifted nervously. 'Is it that obvious?'

Takato suddenly burst into laughter. "Oh man! Maybe it's better that I kill you. I mean really, you're gonna get eaten before you even grow your wings!" he pointed his gun at the Familiar. "You wanna play hero? Fine, let's play. How far will you go to protect your 'Master'?" cocking back the hammer, Takato grinned as the cylinder rotated. "There's only one bullet in here, but what is it? Is it a normal round that will only kill one of you? Or is it a Rune Round that'll blow you both to hell?"

When you've got a gun fit for a Class-A Hunter, you've got to have Class-A ammunition. Under normal circumstances, the 2.290 inch .460 cartridge was more than enough to take down anything short of a whale, but NOTHING that a Hunter encountered could be considered normal. That was where the runes on the gun came in, as the ones on the cylinder gave the normal ammo the power to kill most Nightspawn and even wound the stronger ones with a single shot. But there were times when not even a bullet as formidable as the .460S&W Magnum was enough. Be it super-tough armor, magical barriers, two feet of solid steel, or a couple feet of water, some things just required a little something extra. That's where Rune Rounds came in. A normal round could have magical runes carved into the casing and the bullet itself to give it specific effects. You wanted the bullet to explode with the force of a hand grenade on impact? There was a sequence of runes for that. You wanted your bullet to bore through steel like a hot knife through butter? There was a rune sequence for that. You wanted your bullet to carry a huge electrical charge for overloading machinery or frying organic targets? There was a rune sequence for that as well.

"Will you at least give us a chance to explain?" Motoko screamed, becoming frantic.

"I gave you that chance, but Fairy Boy decided he wanted to be your 'knight in shining armor'. Now, on with the game." Takato pointed the gun at Motoko and squeezed the trigger. There was no deafening bang, just an empty click as the hammer struck nothing but a vacant slot. "Lucky you." he pointed the gun at Kouga. "Your turn."

"No!" Motoko tried to jump in front of her Familiar, but Kouga used his arm to keep her at bay.

"Anxious, are we?" another empty click. The gun was trained on Motoko again. "Good, 'cause you're up again."

Kouga pushed Motoko away at the last second, but all that came was another hollow click.

"Luck's on your side, Kitsune!" Takato turned the gun on Kouga, but was surprised when Motoko shoved her familiar to the ground and placed herself in the bullet's path. Or, she would have, had there been a bullet in the slot. "Uh-oh." Takato's grin twitched on the edge of insanity. "You know what this means, don't ya'?" cocking the hammer back one last time, Takato bounced between his two potential targets. "Eeny, meeny, miny,..." a hand suddenly grabbed his arm and pulled it down.

"Fuck, man! Snap out if it, Takato!" Shino yelled. He knew Takato could get a little carried away when he was on the job, but this was a bit too much. "You act like she killed your parents! What, did she fuck you over in the past?"

Takato twitched a bit and slowly turned his head to Shino, who instantly backed off at the look in his eyes.

"...Moe." Takato brought the gun back up, aimed it at Motoko's head without even looking, and squeezed the trigger.

Time seemed to slow down and Motoko's eyes widened, then snapped shut as she prepared for death. One final thought ran through her mind in that final moment, 'For what it's worth, I really am sorry, Takato.' but death never came, only a violent shove that sent her tumbling to the floor. She looked on in horror as Kouga put himself in the bullet's path. "NO!"

Kouga hit the floor with a loud thump and groaned as he landing on his shoulder, which had been injured in the short fight with Shino, but he was otherwise fine.

"You all suck, I just wanted you to know that." Takato drawled before pointing the gun at Kouga and squeezing the trigger, resulting in another click. He popped out the cylinder, took out the "bullet", then flung it at Kouga, hitting him in the forehead.

As the object rolled along the ground, Motoko picked it up cautiously, then dropped her jaw in shock.

Shino's eyebrows almost met his hairline when he realised what had happened.

"You loaded a spent casing." he mumbled.

Takato nodded. "An age-old trick used by every "magician" out there; sleight of hand. And you all fell for it." he chuckled. "Did none of you really notice that I was about to shoot you with a really big, really loud gun, yet I didn't bother to put up a sound barrier? There's about fifty people right below us, some of which aren't human, and all of which would have heard the gun go off." he then glared at Motoko. "You really aren't fit to be an Agent. Maybe I should get rid of you before you get someone killed...again." the malice his words carried told them all that he wasn't only considering it, he _wanted_ to do it.

Shino wiped a bit of sweat from his brow. "Takato, man, what's with you today? What did she do to you?"

Takato released a low, animalistic growl. "That's on a need-to-know basis...But let's just say I have permission to kill her if she steps foot in my sector."

While Shino had only been working with Takato, and, by extention, the Agency, it turned out that his brother was an Agent and he'd filled him in on some things. One of those things was how the Agency regulated personal vendettas. The Agency was an organization that had thousands of assassins and Hunters working for it. Among these people were Nightspawn, and they weren't received very well by most of the Hunters, so conflicts regularly took place. When things got out of hand and family and friends started getting caught in the crossfire, vendettas emerged, and that's when things got really dangerous. Vendettas not only fucked up missions, they often threatened to compromise secrecy. If a man's entire family had been killed by a volley of stray bullets, that man tended not to care about who saw him take his revenge on the one responsible. Professionalism went out the window with vendettas, and the Agency wouldn't have any of that.

So, when these vendettas emerged, they were reported to the higher-ups and the parties involved would be forced to separate and put a few cities between them, if not entire countries. Say an Agent's wife is killed as a result of another Agent's actions, and both of them were asigned to the same sector. One of the Agents would be forced to relocate to prevent further confrontation. It was an efficient system that had yet to fail, but there were times, like now, when failure was dangerously close.

"You've got two minutes to tell me why you're here, then you've got two hours to get as far away from here as possible. If you are still in my sector by that time, I will hunt you down and eliminate both you and Fairy Boy. Do I make myself clear, Kitsune?" Takato kept his glare leveled at Motoko's own eyes, daring her to defy him, daring her to give him an excuse.

Motoko forced herself to look away and nodded, fearing that he may cast some kind of diabolical illusion on her. Normally a Kitsune would have no problem breaking an illusion, or even reversing one and turning it on the original caster, but to do that she would have had to have a vast amount of magical energy in order to overpower and break the illusion or take control of it. As it stood, Takato could annihilate her with even a minor spell and she would be powerless to stop him. He wasn't one of the top Agents for nothing.

"I...I'm here because the Agency believes that four human Agents may be walking into a trap due to false intelligence." Motoko stood up with Kouga's help and tried to get her trembling under control so she could speak properly.

Takato crossed his arms over his chest. "Is it a team or just four individuals chosen for the same mission?" if these guys were a team, then they could probably get out of most any jam, even if they were only human.

"Team Falcon."

Takato rose an eyebrow, then snorted. "Falcon? Things must be really fucked up if the Agency's worried about them."

Kouga nodded. "The informant that gave them the intell. required to accomplish their mission, a spy working for the Agency, turned up dead and skinned, and apparently had been deceased for a week before he gave Falcon the information. We had another Agent go after the 'informant', and it was discovered that it was a Mimic working for Team Falcon's target."

Takato just grunted. "Who was their target?"

"Kendo Momochi, you may have heard of him."

This time Shino snorted. "Who hasn't? He's been on the news everyday for the past month. Rich businessman, CEO of one of the largest corporations in the country, turns out to be smuggling weapons in from contacts in the US to the Yakuza."

Takato, who didn't watch the news, ever, was surprised by this. "So that's how those thugs got their hands on that hardware." he then shrugged, the amount of firepower they had been packing added at least some excitement to the mission.

"Yes, well, Team Falcon was assigned to take him out to halt the flow of arms, but these recent developements complicate the mission horribly...Enough for the Agency to order a a withdrawal." Motoko said.

"Then why didn't you go to them instead of me? The time you're wasting here could have been spent informing the team!" Takato growled. "You're fucking up again."

"I wasn't told to go to them, I was told to come to you!" Motoko protested.

"Why? Team Falcon has Angel with them, and he's the best sniper the Agency has to offer, one of the best in the world, as a matter of fact." it was true. "Angel" was simply an alias based on his nickname of "Guardian Angel" during his time in the US military. He prove himself worthy of the name during an operation to secure a rather large village in Africa, where his team was ambushed by the citizens, who'd been infected with a man-made virus and turned into ravenous monsters. He and his Spotter had been cutoff from the rest of the team and had made it to the tallest building in the village undetected.

Angel went to cover his team from the roof of the building, but his gun ended up jamming and was rendered useless, as he didn't have the time to take it apart and get the sand out of it. He then took a .308 hunting rifle he'd found on the lower level of the building and, with no scope, proceeded to crack twenty-eight skulls with twenty-seven bullets. Not only did he get his team out alive, but he hit twenty-eight rapidly moving targets at over four-hundred meters without a scope and without his Spotter.

But it didn't end there. To Angel's horror, most of the "people" he shot got back up and continued their pursuit. By the end of the day, Angel was the only survivor of Razorback Squad, having been rescued by three Agents that had been sent to the area. Normally, a person that had been exposed to Nightspawn and lived to tell of it was given the option of joining the Agency, either as an Agent or a simple informant. If they declined, they were released with a warning to keep their mouths shut under the promise of death. But the "Infected", as the villagers were simply called, were artificial Nightspawn, so the rules were a bit unclear on what to do with Angel.

Eventually the team of Agents decided to just pose as a Special Forces unit assigned to find and destroy the main carrier of the virus. Angel was taken back to the States, where he retold his story, but not only to his superiors, but to a small group of men and women all either dressed in white labcoats or black suits. Apparently, they were from a corporation called "Monolith", which had been created from the ashes of another coporation, called "Umbrella Corp.", after it went under. Monolith was using the information and samples left of Umbrella's previous experimental virus in their research to formulate a counter for the new one, which they believed was created using a stolen sample of the "T-virus".

Not much was known(read: made public)about Umbrella Corp., but there was no shortage of rumors. Stuff about zombies, monsters, a nine-foot tall mutant that weilded a rocket launcher that fired missiles the size of fire hydrants; really outlandish shit.

But, when you worked for the Agency, you'd do well to strike words like "outlandish" from your vocabulary.

It was unknown, at least to other Agents, how Angel came to become one of their number, but no one said anything about it. Everyone had their own reasons for joining, and Angel wasn't the first that preferred not to mention his, and he certainly wouldn't be the last.

"It doesn't matter if you can get a headshot at half a mile without a scope when what you're shooting won't die." Motoko sighed a bit. Even though she didn't know any member of Team Falcon personally, she was still saddened by their plight and the absolute slaughter that would occur if they didn't get any backup.

Takato rose an eyebrow in confusion, then nodded in understanding. "I see. If Momochi has access to something like a Mimic, there's no telling just how many Nightspawn he has at his command. Who knows, he could have made a deal and become one himself." it was a possiblility, since there was a large number of Nightspawn, like vampires and werewolves, that could turn a human into one of their own. For the right price, of course. "And I'm guessing Team Falcon isn't packing anything that would be able to down anything other than a human or the weakest of Nightspawn." while magic-infused bullets, if not Rune Rounds, were needed to actually kill most Nightspawn, there were some, like zombies, that could be put down with a normal bullet, as long as you knew where to aim.

Motoko nodded. "They figured that, since their mission would require them to stalk their target for days in order to set up a perfect location to execute, the energy generated by Rune Rounds would bring unnecessary attention to them. They do have some serious firepower with them, but not that serious."

Takato scratched his chin and mumbled something under his breath before speaking outright. "Let's see...Angel has his modified Remington M700 XCR with an integrated suppressor, firing the .375 RUM cartridge and his .357 revolver. Arc has his M32 40mm grenade launcher and some kind of submachinegun, probably a P90 or that TDI Kriss Super V that he managed to get his hands on. Buck has his trusty semi-auto 12-gauge; something light and automatic, like an TEC-DC9 or MP7 and that damned machete he takes everywhere. And Chopper's got his ever-present Desert Eagle and an assault rifle, probably that Barrett REC7 he 'found' last week." Takato sighed and mumbled something else before speaking again. "You're right, that is some serious firepower...But if they don't have Rune Rounds with them...Wait, aren't they using their specialized guns?" in their line of work, every Agent had at least one custom weapon that was either designed from scratch using their own specifications, or an existing weapon modified and/or Runed(10), like Takato's guns. Not only did these help with assassinations, they were invaluable when "complications" decide to rear their ugly heads.

Kouga shook his head. "No. Again, the magical energy signature would, as they said, attract the attention of any Nightspawn or Intuned humans in the area." a human was considered "Intuned" when he/she was able to feel magical energies and/or had magical abilities of their own. When an "Intuned" human developed his/her abilities to the point where they could hold their own against a relatively tough Nightspawn, they were considered a Mage. Shino was a prime example, though he was fairly weak as Mages went.

"Well shit." Takato pinched the bridge of his nose. "I swear, if I didn't owe Angel a favor, I'd be demanding a bonus right now." Takato had done a few missions with Team Falcon when he was just a rookie. During one of these missions, he was in the process of getting his ass handed to him by a minotaur when he was saved by the legendary sniper. With its giant warhammer raised high above its horned head, the minotaur was about to literally pound Takato into the ground, but was stopped cold by a .375 RUM round to the forehead, courtesy of the "Guardian Angel" of Team Falcon.

According to Chopper, Angel had taken that shot, without a scope, while running across a rooftop four-hundred meters away. As a testament to just how respected Angel was amongst the other Agents, whenever Chopper mentioned that shot, or any of Angel's equally impressive feats, no one ever questioned it. Sometimes...Hell, MOST of the time it was hard to believe that Angel was, in fact, human. There were Nightspawn snipers within the ranks of the Agency that had, with scopes and more powerful guns, missed shots at half the distance that Angel regularly nailed his targets from.

Apparently, the Agents weren't the only ones that often questioned Angel's race, if the frequent DNA tests were any indication. No matter how good they were, no Mimic, Kitsune, or any other Nightspawn that impersonated other organisms could duplicate things down to the cellular level. A DNA test would never fail to reveal what they truely were. But Angel checked out every time, and was beginning to become annoyed with the perceived lack of trust from his superiors. He'd completed hundreds, if not thousands of missions in his years with the Agency, and never had another Agent died under his watch. But any Agent, no matter how much of a jackass they were, would trust Angel with their lives, and no amount of distrust from the Agency would change that.

"So, you'll do it?" Shino asked, wondering what Takato was going to do about his friends downstairs, who were probably already looking for him.

Takato nodded. "Yeah. Give me their location and let me go home and gear up. I'll be there as fast as I can." while Takato could summon his guns from anywhere, the rest of his gear, like his coat and wrist blades, was another story.

Motoko nodded and gave a small smile, which was received with a scowl from Takato. "Their last transmission had them stationed in a condemned building on the corner of Sonji and Hazure. They should be on the fifth floor of the building, or at least Angel should be there. The others might still be out and about."

Takato rose an eyebrow. "Wait a minute, why are they carrying out an assassination in broad daylight?"

Motoko shrugged. "You'll have to ask them. They originally said they'd take Momochi out tonight, but their last transmission had them saying they'd be doing a daylight job."

Takato just nodded, but he didn't entirely trust the situation, or the information. 'Something's not right about this...Shit, damn near everything's not right about it.' he frowned. 'If I want the truth, the WHOLE truth, I'm gonna have to get it straight from the falcon's beak.' afterall, this wouldn't be the first time that the Agency had withheld the entire truth so he'd take a mission, only to reveal it to him when it was too late to back out. They were bastards like that.

* * *

And there you have it!

Like I said, this chapter is far more serious than the last, and has relatively few laughs.

I can't really think of anything to say about the chapter that won't be in the footnotes, so meh. But I do need to tell you that work on Black Flames is going very slow. Like retarded-snail-stuck-in-tree-sap slow. So don't expect the next update anytime soon.

Oh yeah, you need to know that vampires don't "ash" when they die in this fic, unless their bodies are exposed to sunlight.

(1) Why the .460 XVR? Simple: it's the best handgun I've ever seen in my life. I wanted to give Takato a really big gun to use whenever things got really hairy, but I didn't want to use the .454(I'm using enough crap from Hellsing as it is), and I didn't feel like making something up. I needed a cartridge that was huge, and had a suitably large gun to chamber it. It just so happens that I own a very large amount of guns, and among them are my "pride and joy" revolvers: a .454 Raging Bull, S&W .460 XVR, and the S&W Model 500. Since the .454 was already out of the question, I only had two choices. And, since I personally favor the .460, that ended up being Takato's "Deus Ex Machina", if you will. That being the case, you won't see this gun as often as Takato's others, since he won't be needing it unless he encounters a real badass...But, then again, he'll be encountering a lot of those, so maybe you'll be seeing the "Problem Solver" more often.

(2) From now on, when Takato is on-assignment, he will he will be known by his alias of "Seventeen". This will also serve as something of a barrier between Takato's personas. When he's on the job, Takato is a completely different person, and I want to get that across effectively, so I'll be treating Takato and Seventeen almost like separate characters.

(3) "Nightspawn" is the general name that all supernatural creatures in this story will be classified under. This includes even your typically kind and benevolent creatures, like Fairies and such.

(4) I'll do a detailed description of Suzako later. Actually, I'm still trying to determine exactly what I want her to look like. There will be a LOT of female OCs in this fic, and I don't want any of them to look the same, so I've got to be innovative here. And no, the chicks won't be after Takato's nuts, most of them will be out for his head(shut up, perverts).

(5) I don't care about actual street names, and if you do, you suck.

(6) Dregs are humanoid Nightspawn that have mouths resembling Cookiecutter Sharks. And, like those sharks, their mouths are lined with razor-sharp teeth that are used to tear circular chunks of flesh out of their prey. But Dregs mostly feed on brains, using their mouths to latch onto their victims skull, cut out a hole, then suck the mushy stuff out...Yum. Even though their bodies look human, they even wear clothes, they are easily identified by the fact that they wear scarves all the time, regardless of the season, to hide their mouths.

(7) The .460 Rowland is a cartridge was created by Johnny Rowland as a more powerful alternative to the .45 ACP. As far as I know, only the legendary M1911 pistol has featured conversion kits that allow it to fire the .460, so I've modified the H&K MK23 to fire that round instead of the .45 ACP. Why did I not use the M1911? It's far too overused, mostly in movies. And yes, I am fully aware of the fact that all of Takato's weapons fire a round designated as a .460. This was completely by accident, I didn't even realise it until a friend pointed it out.

(8) Yes, it is fucking sad. All you wannabe "Gangstas" out there. Most of you are nothing but a bunch of pussies who hide behind a tough facade. I can't even remember that last time I had a one-on-one fight with a "gangsta". They always have to get their friends in on it, and why? Because they know they'll get their asses handed to them if they fight alone. I see all these kids running around thinkin' they're the hardest thing since titanium, when they're really about as soft as a cottonball. The fact of the matter is this: if you have to tell people that you're tough, you aren't.

(9) A Deadpan Snark is the member of a group or cast of characters that can always spot the flaws in a plan and never fails to point them out, usually in the form of sarcasm. Lines like: "So you're telling us that we, who are all bleeding right now, are to jump into the shark-infested water, swim for about two-hundred feet while pausing at air pockets, and _hope_ that we aren't torn apart? Yeah, great plan, but I don't think I'm the only one that's a little lost here. Why don't you go first, you know, show us how it's done?" are usually reserved for the Deadpan Snark. This character is often said to be perfect for the role of the leader, but initially declines because he/she doesn't want the responsibility. Sometimes, in horror movies, if the Deadpan Snark isn't killed off in the early going, he/she(mostly he) will reveal themselves to be huge cowards, and often break down when they get to the "it's time to fight back" animes have a Deadpan Snark, but most movies don't(they just have characters that have DS moments), and Rika is the closest thing to a Deadpan Snark in Digimon Tamers. The Deadpan Snark is NOT to be confused with the Sarcastic Bastard/Bitch, though the line between the two can become blurry at times.

(10) "Runing" is the process of carving magical runes into objects, normally weapons. It can also apply to someone using runes in the form of tattoos, though this is highly dangerous and ends in disaster more often than not, as you will see later in the fic. Larger items, like guns and melee weapons, are Runed by hand, but Rune Rounds are made via a machine to ensure that there is always a substantial supply of them when needed.

I hope you all enjoyed that, because I enjoyed writing it.

What is Takato going to do about his friends?

What is the Agency hiding?

Why is Angel such a good shot?

Just how deep does Monolith's connection to Umbrella go?

Why does my toast refuse to fall butterside down?

Well, you'll all have to wait for the answers. So, until next time...

Jason Out!


End file.
